Google’s Fixing the Hangouts Hack With ‘Biggest Software Update Ever’

Security researchers scared the shit out of Android users last hebdomad when they revealed a vulnerabilitythat lease drudge control your phone with a individual text edition . In a session at Black Hat , Google ’s Adrian Ludwig just explained precisely how it ’s being fixed , calling it the biggest software update in history . He seems pretty shivering about the whole thing , too .

At the “ Android Security State of the Union ” talk , Ludwig launched into new inside information about how Google ’s fast and belligerent efforts to patch up the so - called libstagefright vulnerability . This particularly awful problem enable hackers to send off any Android user a multimedia system message ( namely , a video ) with malware embed in the code . Thanks to a feature in Hangout , the file would charge mechanically so that you ’d be able to see a trivial thumbnail of the video justly forth . The vulnerability leave intimately a billion Android phones disclose .

So Google ’s fixing it — and fast . properly now , updates are being pushed over the line to the entire Nexus line that will arrest the messenger app from preloading assets like malware embedded videos . ( salutary idea ! ) Millions of non - Nexus phones will get the same update this week . In the lag , Ludwig encourage everyone to use a different messaging app .

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“ We ’re in the midst of what I remember might be the largest software update the world has ever take in , ” Ludwig told the crowd of hacker in Las Vegas , adding that this will be a educational activity moment . “ We do n’t bonk what befall in a software ecosystem where everything is different . This has n’t happened before . ”

The encouraging intelligence , Ludwig said , is that users running Ice Cream sandwich or later should be safe already thanks to some code that mitigates feat while the code is being fixed . This news came after about 45 transactions of the Google lead engineer cheerleading Android ’s unique security department features . The squad is working hard to check that nothing like this come about again , but like Ludwig said , it ’s tough when you ’re running an opened software platform that ’s used by 950 million people .

That say , the state of the union for Android is strong , say Ludwig . Right after that , he sort of said that he has to say that because that ’s just what you say at a state of the sexual union speech . It would ’ve been reasonably funny if he ’d suppose the land of the unification was fucked though . Because bloody , this messaging vulnerability — and that largest computer software update in history particular — is crazy .

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