Android Phone Vulnerablity

Darren Wright

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
20,087
Location
Springfield, Missouri
There was an Android phone exploit found, if anyone has one, they may want to consider making changes to your text messenger app to turn off automatic downloads of MMS messages (multi-media messages) and don't download an attachment in a message you're not expecting. A permanent fix may or may not be put out for your phone, based on how old it may be.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/07/27/android-text-attacks/

How to prevent, if using these apps:
https://www.twilio.com/blog/2015/07/how-to-protect-your-android-device-from-stagefright-exploit.html

If your phone is older or your messenger app settings doesn't have an option to turn off automatic downloads, you may simply be able to install/change to the Google Messengers app, set it as your default, but also disable the automatic downloads:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging&hl=en
 
Thanks, Darren! As a recent smartphone convert, i'm not up to speed on all the vulnerability issues. I'm glad you posted this! Auto-retrieve disabled!
 
Top