You must have heard that the Android Play Store is scanned on a daily basis by Google. And it is also a fact that there are various security issues found inside many apps present on the Play Store.
Also, we have seen plenty of reports where Google has cracked down on apps which are malware or adware inside its Play Store. However, a new report from cybersecurity firm Kryptowire is something that should worry everyone who is using an Android device.
Because it says that there are millions of Android devices around the world that have security vulnerabilities out of the box.
Yes, the worrying part here is that they come out of the box while no one has installed any apps on the device.
Basically, it means that your device is vulnerable right from the moment you boot it up and setting it up. Krytpowire says that they have found this thanks to their in-house ‘automated firmware scanning tools’.
Talking about the Android devices which are vulnerable, they are mostly those which have heavy skin on top of Stock Android. Basically, these OEMs are Asian ones such as Samsung, Xiaomi, Sony, Asus including 29 others.
Now, Kryptowire notified Google of these issues as well as the affected OEMs too. But it is revealed that while Samsung was notified, it investigated the issue and deemed that the issue is not a major one.
Talking about these vulnerabilities, they can be used to record audio from a device’s mic without permission or even change settings inside a device’s system.
While some of these issues are because of the pre-installed apps by these OEMs, others are there right inside a device’s firmware.
Google has tried to rectify these issues already by rolling out security patches but these issues will keep on coming as long as OEMs don’t take care of their device’s security properly