New Android Flaw unlocks phone with wrong password

Another day & another security flaw, a security researcher has found a way to unlock an Android phone, no coding or malware involved though. All it takes is a very long wrong password.

The flaw affects devices running Android 5.0 to 5.1.1, though a small percentage of devices here in Pakistan but still it’s an issue to be aware of.

For the hack a person requires physical access to the device for some time, it exploits a flaw in the Lock screen process, one has to make a long character string in the emergency dialer by copy and pasting, once that is made the camera app is opened from the lock screen and the options menu accessed when the password dialog opens the same copied character string is entered and voila instead of password incorrect dialog, the device is unlocked.

To protect yourself from this flaw you can either opt for pin or pattern based lock.

The nexus line of devices have patch available to fix this vulnerability, but that can’t be said about other devices.