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PSA: Update Your Google Phones - Critical Update Now Available

16,452 7,889 March 21, 2023 at 02:37 PM in Tech & Electronics (2)
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Just giving a heads-up. Many people might not be aware, but there's a critical vulnerability on many Android phones where a hacker can take complete control over your phone by just knowing your phone number (and wifi calling is active on your phone). Luckily Google has released an update for many of the phones vulnerable to this yesterday. You have to manually go into your Android phone and search for an update for your phone and it will push the update to you.

More details about the vulnerability: https://www.androidauthority.com/...s-3299355/

Since so many people are affected by this I figured this was worthy of being posted!
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Joined Nov 2015
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> bubble2 363 Posts
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03-21-2023 at 03:04 PM.
Issue looks to be specific to Exynos chips, not all Android's.

Known defective devices:
-Samsung Galaxy S22, M33, M13, M12, A71, A53, A33, A21s, A13, A12 and A04 series.
-Vivo S16, S15, S6, X70, X60 and X30 series.
-The Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series.
-Any vehicles that use the Exynos Auto T5123 chipset.
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Last edited by Cash_Only March 21, 2023 at 03:07 PM.
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> bubble2 61 Posts
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03-21-2023 at 03:15 PM.
*Samsung Galaxy S22, M33, M13, M12, A71, A53, A33, A21s, A13, A12 and A04 series.
*Vivo S16, S15, S6, X70, X60 and X30 series.
*The Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series.
*Any vehicles that use the Exynos Auto T5123 chipset.
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> bubble2 195 Posts
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03-21-2023 at 03:49 PM.
Quote from SlickDeelz305 :
Just get an iPhone 🤷🏻 ♂️
I think it's much cheaper just to do an update. Don't you think?🤷 ♂️
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Joined Nov 2009
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> bubble2 472 Posts
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03-21-2023 at 04:14 PM.
Quote from SlickDeelz305 :
Just get an iPhone 🤷🏻 ♂️
Because iPhones are completely free from vulnerabilities?

https://thehackernews.com/2023/02...ities.html

https://www.macrumors.com/2023/02...-overview/

Bonus here's some of iphones biggest exploits:

https://www.cvedetails.com/vulner...4a48152068
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Last edited by watwat March 21, 2023 at 04:21 PM.
Joined Oct 2016
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> bubble2 224 Posts
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03-21-2023 at 04:17 PM.
Quote from yslsd :
You need to get system update notifications through Slickdeals now? Is android really in trouble?
It is crazy, I'm a big Pixel fan and my 6 Pro did NOT let me know that I needed an update, let alone one as severe as this. Definitely a red flag that needs to be fixed.
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> bubble2 3,121 Posts
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03-21-2023 at 04:23 PM.
The majority of phones, if not almost all of them, will:

A. Be too old, thus unsupported and vulnerable.
No security patches available for zero-days because of the absurdly poor design of Android + Carrier OS update policies.

B. Be vulnerable despite current, frequent patches because hidden/undiscovered zero-days are become very useful to foreign nations and deepweb hackers, so they'll go months if not years undetected with no patch.

So, if you're freaking out, just assume all phones are hacked and you just don't know it because that zero-day being used still will not be discovered for months.

....

In this sense, it's like iPhone, OSX and Windows security today. Every month, a new set of patches. Every month, a new zero-day found.

And in between patching and hacking, your devices are fully vulnerable.

Again, assume everything's hacked and work based on that. Don't assume it's secure.

....

That said, aside from the foreign nations sucking up all of your data through TikTok, Facebook, etc, there must also be a good reason to mess with you. So unless you're Trump or someone special, hackers and nation states really don't have the time to mess with an average Joe beyond reselling their identity info en masse.
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Joined Nov 2009
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> bubble2 472 Posts
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03-21-2023 at 04:23 PM.
Quote from yslsd :
You need to get system update notifications through Slickdeals now? Is android really in trouble?
Nobody really needs to. Somebody just decided to make a post about it on slickdeals.
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Joined Nov 2011
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> bubble2 27 Posts
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03-21-2023 at 04:40 PM.
Quote from Cash_Only :
Issue looks to be specific to Exynos chips, not all Android's.

Known defective devices:
-Samsung Galaxy S22, M33, M13, M12, A71, A53, A33, A21s, A13, A12 and A04 series.
-Vivo S16, S15, S6, X70, X60 and X30 series.
-The Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series.
-Any vehicles that use the Exynos Auto T5123 chipset.
Pixel 7 phones got patched with the March 5th security update
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> bubble2 3,497 Posts
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03-21-2023 at 04:51 PM.
Thanks. Applying the update now.
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