{"id":338090,"date":"2020-02-10T08:11:19","date_gmt":"2020-02-10T06:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=338090"},"modified":"2020-02-10T08:13:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T06:13:31","slug":"beware-android-security-flaw-lets-attackers-send-malware-over-bluetooth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/338090-beware-android-security-flaw-lets-attackers-send-malware-over-bluetooth.html","title":{"rendered":"Beware &#8211; Android security flaw lets attackers send malware over Bluetooth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A critical security flaw in Android could allow attackers to send harmful files to your smartphone via Bluetooth.<\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability was discovered by security researchers at <a href=\"https:\/\/insinuator.net\/2020\/02\/critical-bluetooth-vulnerability-in-android-cve-2020-0022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>ERNW<\/strong><\/a> in November 2019. Researchers said it could be exploited to by malicious actors to steal personal data or spread malware.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;On Android 8.0 to 9.0, a remote attacker within proximity can silently execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the Bluetooth daemon as long as Bluetooth is enabled,&#8221; ERNW said.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers said that no actions are required from the user&#8217;s side &#8211; attackers only have to know the Bluetooth MAC address of the targeted device.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For some devices, the Bluetooth MAC address can be deduced from the WiFi MAC address,&#8221; ERNW added.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Update now<\/h3>\n<p>The researchers strongly recommended that users of the affected operating systems install the latest February 2020 security patch from Android, which fixes the issue.<\/p>\n<p>In the event that an update is not yet available for your device, ERNW advised the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Only enable Bluetooth if strictly necessary.<\/li>\n<li>Keep your device non-discoverable. Most are only discoverable if you enter the Bluetooth scanning menu. Nevertheless, some older phones might be discoverable permanently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To check for and download the latest updates for your Android device, navigate to Settings on your phone and go to either the &#8220;Software Update&#8221; or &#8220;About phone&#8221; menus.<\/p>\n<p>For further instructions, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/android\/answer\/7680439?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Android Help support page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/337802-public-wi-fi-warning-in-south-africa.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Public Wi-Fi warning in South Africa<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A critical security flaw in Android could allow attackers to send harmful files to your smartphone via Bluetooth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":268787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[397,1027,15511],"class_list":["post-338090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-android","tag-bluetooth","tag-security-flaw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338104,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338090\/revisions\/338104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}