Android phone 'wipeout' security flaw exposed

[karl]

A weakness that can cause all the data stored on Android smartphone handsets to be erased has been found.

Websites tricked users into activating malicious code by clicking on-screen phone numbers, Ravi Borgaonkar, from the Technical University Berlin, said.

No Android could tell the difference between actual phone numbers and USSD codes recognised by handsets as instructions to re-set or wipe its memory card, he wrote in a blog post.

Android maker Google has issued a fix.


See full story here: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19784413

[FreeFall]

Oh thank goodness my phone's not a smart phone.
I really dislike google, its search engine is really the only thing I like about it.

[Mortal Coil]

This is why I don't have a smartphone
[-]jks it's cause I'd need a two year contract if I got one and I'm not sticking around that long[/-]

But this is just another story about smartphones being crappy. I can't be the only one who is getting jaded of the same thing recurring. Can I?

[TheMatrix]

And I thought that every single computer security textbook told you not to make remote code execution possible without limits.
Well, what are the odds?