Hundreds of millions of Android terminals are vulnerable to an extremely dangerous exploit which was discovered in the Linux kernel used by Google's operating system, approximately 66% of devices being affected.
The computer security company called Perception Point Research discovered this vulnerability and it seems that it has existed since 2013, with Google avoiding to solve it until now, and this on purpose because we are not talking about an omission.
The only good part of this discovery is that so far researchers have not discovered any virus that exploits this vulnerability, but since it has been brought to the attention of the media, things could change extremely quickly.
Based on the information provided by those from Perception Point Research, the vulnerability allows malicious applications to take control of certain functions of Android terminals, specifically that of recording photos or video clips, that which controls the microphone or GPS and many others.
The Perception Point Research team has identified a 0-day local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Linux kernel. As of the date of disclosure, this vulnerability has implications for approximately tens of millions of Linux PCs and servers, and 66 percent of all Android devices (phones/tablets).
Google offered a rather unexpected response to the findings of Perception Point Research, the company from Mountain View claiming that its researchers are not worried about this exploit, they believe that Android applications could not exploit it.
Despite the reluctance of the engineers, the Google company stated that it will solve the problem with an Android update that will be released in March, 3 years after its appearance, but it is a very long way from Google to the users' terminals, the manufacturers updating - and very difficult devices.
