Millions of Android devices open to attack yet again; Google issues security advisory

Another day and **another** report indicating that millions of Android devices are vulnerable to attack. In the third major bug affecting Android devices this month, a vulnerability in Android’s Linux kernel will allow an app to execute code in the kernel, reports ArsTechnica. In layman’s terms, this vulnerability means that any app can “hack” a phone at the OS level and have free reign over the entire system. If infected, the only way to get rid of the problem, if you ever even detect it, is to completely wipe the device and flash a new OS image. The vulnerability in question isn’t an Android vulnerability per se, it’s a vulnerability in the Linux kernel that Android was built around. Interestingly, that vulnerability was patched in 2014, but the update wasn’t pushed to Android devices. Google issued a security advisory on the problem and said, “This issue is rated as a critical severity due to the possibility of a local permanent device compromise and the device would possibly need to be repaired by re-flashing the operating system.” An update has already been pushed out and AOSP repositories (used by third-party developers like Cyanogen and Xiaomi) have also been updated. So far, only one app has been discovered that takes advantage of this vulnerability. Please keep your phones updated to stay protected at all times.