It is believed that the Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team discovered the flaws in September of last year. In a blog entry called “Android applications with millions of downloads are vulnerable to serious vulnerabilities” The team stated the flaws could have been used to launch serious attacks against target devices which could lead to a the device being taken over in part as well as data theft.
The researchers also pointed out that, just as pre-installed or default apps on Android smartphones, affected applications aren’t completely uninstalled or disabled unless you have permission to root the device.
It is believed that the Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team has discovered the flaws back in September of last year. In a blog entry entitled “Android apps that have millions of downloads vulnerable to serious vulnerabilities” The team stated the flaws could have been used to launch serious attacks on devices targeted which could lead to a the device being taken over in part as well as data theft.
Additionally, they noted that, as pre-installed or default apps on Android phones, the affected applications cannot be completely removed or disabled unless you have an access point to root on the device.
“Microsoft discovered high-severity vulnerabilities within the mobile framework that is operated by mce Systems and used by numerous major mobile service providers in the preinstalled Android System apps that potentially exposed users to remote (albeit complicated) or local attack,” the team wrote in their blog post.
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Microsoft stated that affected applications “with million of downloads” were already fixed by all the parties involved.
It is analyzing those vulnerabilities as follows: CVE-2021-42600 and CVE-2021-42600. and CVE-2021-42601. All of them have severity scores that range from 7.0 to 8.9 out of 10.
The company also found out that the application framework used by multiple applications “had an ”BROWSABLE” service activity” that attackers can remotely initiate to attack a variety of weaknesses and allow attackers to “implant an ongoing backdown” or gain complete control of the device.
Additionally, the framework was believed to be designed to provide self-diagnostic tools that can detect and fix issues that affect users of the Android device. According to Microsoft it means that permissions were created to be “inherently wide” and include access to valuable resources.
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For instance the framework could be used to access camera systems power, storage, and power controls. Microsoft also discovered that it was utilized by default systems applications, so that it could leverage it’s self-diagnostic features.
The mce Systems as well as others mobile services providers that were affected were informed by Microsoft. The participants partnered together to address the issue.
Google also assisted them in changing their Play Protect service so that it could block attacks sources.
While Microsoft declared that there was no evidence of flaws getting used “in nature” however, they did mention that they could have discovered a variety of service providers that could be which are affected.
“We are continuing to collaborate in partnership with our security partners to exchange knowledge regarding threats and improve security for all. Microsoft security researchers continue to identify new threats and vulnerabilities,” the research team stated.