You might not ever have heard of a digital signal processor, but there’s a good chance you’ve reaped the benefits of one on your phone. These processors, described as a “complete computer in a single chip,” are the reason phones can fully charge within five minutes or launch augmented reality for games like Pokemon Go. The chip’s wide range of possibilities, however, mean it’s ripe for abuse from hackers, warn researchers at Check Point, a cybersecurity firm. In a Defcon presentation scheduled for Friday, researcher Slava Makkaveev is expected to demonstrate how these processors are essentially gateways for attackers to get control over Android devices. For more like this Subscribe to the Mobile newsletter, receive notifications and see related stories on CNET. Makkaveev looked at the Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, which is in more than 40 percent of Android devices, and found more than 400 vulnerabilities. A potential hacker could create a malicious app that exploits these vulnerabilities to bypass the usual security checkpoints and take data, including photos, videos and location information. Read more: That used or refurbished Android phone might be unsafe: 6 things to knowThe vulnerabilities also could allow a malicious app to record calls and turn on a device’s microphone without people knowing… Read full this story
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