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Dennis Fisher is a journalist with more than 13 years of experience covering information security.
As the situation involving Carrier IQ continues to evolve and users become more aware of the software and its capabilities, a couple of tools designed to detect the application’s presence on mobile devices have emerged.
The researchers who last week said they had succeeded in jailbreaking the RIM PlayBook tablet have now posted a detailed walkthrough of how users can accomplish the same task on their own. The technique requires the use of a custom tool, but otherwise is fairly straightforward.
Security researchers who have investigated the inner workings of the Carrier IQ software and its capabilities say that the application has some powerful, and potentially worrisome capabilities, but that as it’s currently deployed by carriers it doesn’t have the ability to record SMS messages, phone calls or keystrokes. However, the researchers note that there is still potential for abuse of the information that’s being gathered, whether by the carriers themselves or third parties who can access the data legitimately or through a compromise of a device.
The Black Hole exploit kit and the Carberp Trojan have a lovely, symbiotic relationship and they’ve recently decided to take that relationship to the next level. In the last month, there has a been a major spike in the volume of Carberp infections related to attacks from sites hosting Black Hole, mostly exploiting Java vulnerabilities.
Many of the apps that come pre-installed on a variety of Android devices from manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung, Google and others have access to more services and capabilities on the devices than they should or that users are aware they have, according to new research. These “capability leaks” can sometimes be inherited from other apps, but the researchers say that they constitute significant security weaknesses on the Android devices.
Google is expanding the amount and kind of data that it supplies to network operators about potentially malicious activity happening on their networks and elsewhere. The company is now giving operators information on dedicated domains that are being used for malware hosting and distribution.
The fallout from the controversy surrounding the presence of Carrier IQ’s software on millions of mobile devices on several different platforms has now reached Washington. Sen. Al Franken on Thursday sent a letter to the company, demanding answers to a series of questions about the software and its capabilities, and saying that the data that Carrier IQ collects “may violate federal privacy laws”.
A group of researchers is claiming that they’ve found a root exploit that enables them to jailbreak the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet made by Research In Motion. In a video demonstration of the jailbreak, one of the researchers shows off the ability to change the settings on a PlayBook and says that he also has the ability to install the Android Market app on the tablet.
Security researcher Trevor Eckhart discovered that many Android devices come pre-loaded with a piece of software made by Carrier IQ. In this video, he demonstrates how the software works and what it’s capable of monitoring. It’s since been revealed that versions of the app may have been on other devices, but likely don’t log users’ actions but provide analytical information for the carriers.
Adobe has patched a security flaw in its Flex SDK product that could lead to cross-site scripting attacks against some applications that were built using the SDK. The vulnerability affects versions 3.6 and below and 4.5.1 and below.
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