HTC Smartphone Bug: Your Personal Data Could be Leaked
HTC Smartphone Bug: Your Personal Data Could be Leaked
Is your HTC smartphone receiving calls or messages from unknown individuals? Or perhaps emails from dubious sources?
Then maybe your HTC Android phone is a victim of identity theft attack.
The Android Police recently revealed that a flaw in the latest version of HTC Sense use interface can allow a malicious app to gain access to personal data in your phone. It reported that phone numbers, email addresses, GPS location and even histories of phone numbers can easily be accessed by hackers, thanks to the vulnerability of the HTC Android software.
Affected HTC phones so far are EVO 4G, EVO 3G, EVO Shift 4G, Thunderbolt, MyTouch 4G Slide and some Sensation models. Other models are also being looked into.
According to Artem Russakovskii of Android Police, HTC introduced a suite of logging tools that collect lots of information. Specifically, HTC customized its Android environment with a feature called Tell HTC that collects extensive phone data such as IP addresses; full memory info; active notifications in the notification bar, including notification text; list of installed apps, including permissions used, user ids, versions; and more.
Its like leaving your keys under the mat and expecting nobody who finds to unlock the door, Russakovskii said.
Described as an information disclosure bug, this feature allows this logging information available without appropriate permissions.
The only way to fix the problem according to Russakovskii, is to root devices or wait for an update to be issued by HTC. Meanwhile, if you do not root your device, it is recommended that you immediately remove Htcloggers, which are found in/system/app/HtcLoggers.apk.
This matter has been brought to HTC's attention and the company is said to be looking into it no real response has been reported.
To be safe, smartphones users are generally advised to be careful in using applications.