Scientists have come up with a new jailbreak method that would give them unrestrained access to several Android phones. It takes advantage of the computer bug which helps an organization’s competitor or adversary to juggle data which are stored in integrated circuits.
Rowhammer is the name given to this ingenious technological innovation. This malicious software invades the major functions of the mobile phone’s operating system and subdues its primary security mechanisms. This computer bug can possibly have a tremendous impact which can cause widespread negative effect on many electronic systems especially those that use the ARM architecture on its processors.
The malware is indeed a horrific threat to many popular Android devices. The bug can easily infiltrate the mobile device because it wages its attack the device hardware instead of the software. Hence, it bypasses the Android’s security system. No matter how extensive the phone’s security system is, Rowhammer is able to overcome them all.
The computer specialists are all wearing their brains out trying to figure out how to fix this problem. One of them confessed they had never been able to experience anything like it before. Some, if not most of them, were even surprised to discover a bug that eats up on the computer’s hardware instead of the software.
The researchers are getting conflicting results from their studies. They are claiming that the age of the hardware might play a significant role in this unpredictable situation. Others also say that some memory chips are stronger than others. They have the ability to quickly recover from Rowhammer’s attacks. The researchers are hoping to develop an app that helps mobile phone users to test their phones wherein they can send the results back to the researchers incognito so that the researcher will be able to keep track of these hardware vulnerabilities.
Google had labeled the bug as critical when the researchers had sent them a report of their findings. The search company rewarded these analysts with an amount of four thousand U.S. dollars and acknowledged them as recipients of Google’s bug bounty reward program. Google had educated its hardware partners and hopes to publish an update next month that could address the issue.
But the analyst cautions that the updates may not be able to completely exterminate this hardware bug. In fact, it may only make this hardware glitch more difficult to manipulate. Nevertheless, Google is working hard to find the best solution to resolve this issue.
