Skip to main content

Google Partially Patches Flaw in Chrome for Android 3 Years After Disclosure

Google Partially Patches Flaw in Chrome for Android 3 Years After Disclosure

google chrome for android
Google has finally patched a privacy vulnerability in its Chrome web browser for Android that exposes users' device model and firmware version, eventually enabling remote attackers to identify unpatched devices and exploit known vulnerabilities.

The vulnerability, which has not yet given any CVE number, is an information disclosure bug that resides in the way the Google Chrome for Android generates 'User Agent' string containing the Android version number and build tag information, which includes device name and its firmware build.

This information is also sent to applications using WebView and Chrome Tabs APIs, which can be used to track users and fingerprint devices on which they are running.

For example: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 5.1.1; Nexus 6 Build/LYZ28K) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/46.0.2490.34 Mobile Safari/537.36

Yakov Shafranovich, a contributor at Nightwatch Cybersecurity firm, initially reported this issue to Google three years ago, but at the time, the company rejected the bug report saying that its browser app was "working as intended."

"While Android does offer the ability to override these (via WebSettings.setUserAgent() in WebView), most applications choose not to do that to assure compatibility by relying on the default header," Shafranovich said.

"For many devices, this can be used to identify not only the device itself but also the carrier on which it is running and from that the country."

This privacy issue can also be used to determine the security patch level on the device and vulnerabilities the device is vulnerable to, which attackers can exploit in a targeted fashion.

However, Google has now partially addressed the issue with the release of Chrome 70 in October 2018, after a new bug report was filed earlier this year by a separate user on Google's Chromium forum.

According to the researcher, the Chrome 70 update only removed the firmware build information from the header, but the hardware model identifier is still available in the User Agent.

However, since the update only applies to the app itself and not to the WebView implementation, application developers are recommended to manually override the User Agent configuration in their apps.
"Also, unlike the desktop Chrome, on Android no extensions or overrides are possible to change the header other than the “Request Desktop Site” option on the browser itself for the current session," Shafranovich says in a new post.
"Both the vendor and MITRE refused to issue a CVE number to track this issue since they do not consider it to be security related"
Shafranovich believes that all versions of Chrome for Android prior to version 70 are affected by the vulnerability, so all users are highly recommended to upgrade to Chrome version 70 or later.

Contact us:

Red Securium Pvt Limited Company

Red securium company provide best ethical hacking  and cyber security training in noida.

Address: Block A, A-25, Second Floor, Sector 3, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301
Telephone number: +91-120 429 1672
Email: info@redsecurium.org
Mobile number: +91-7455923827
Google+ Profile: Red Securium
Facebook profile: Red Securium
Twitter Profile: Red Securium
Instagram Profile: Red Securium

Labels:
Location: Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tr0ll 1.0 – Vulnhub CTF Challenge Walkthrough

  Tr0ll 1.0 is an intentionally vulnerable machine, which is more of a   CTF  like type than real world scenario. Nevertheless, this machine has its own difficulties and you can learn some new stuff from it. So, let’s start. Enumeration Phase Let’s first run  netdiscover  to find the IP of our machine. netdiscover -r 192.168.1.1/24 After that, we run our typical  nmap  scan to see the open ports in the machine. nmap -A -sS -Pn -vv [target] Great we see many interesting stuff here. First of all, there is an open  FTP  port and we can connect to it with  anonymous access .  Also there is an open  http  port, we will run a nikto scan for it. The  ssh  port will be valuable later. From the nikto scan we got an interesting  /secret/  folder. When we get inside, we can understand why the machine got this name. Nothing interesting here, as you can see. we got trolled Let’s connect to the ftp server. When we get asked for the username we type ‘ anonymous ‘ and we l
Post a Comment
Read more

Digital Marketing Services in noida

Red Securium Company Provide Digital Marketing Service In Noida Strengthen your brand positioning, awareness, revenue objectives and market share with our custom-built digital marketing services to suit their business needs. Get easily accessible to your target audience on mobiles and social networking sites across different platforms. Our cross-functional digital marketing experts offer end-to-end digital marketing solutions that are in step with your business's goals and policies. Our targeted digital marketing campaigns are custom-structured for helping you in strengthening your brand positioning, awareness, revenue objectives and market share. Digital Marketing Services  Digital Marketing Service  Social Network Marketing Service Seo Services Marketing  PPC Marketing Service  Social Media Marketing Sales Generation Services  Mobile Marketing Service  Content Marketing Service Event Marketing Service  Video Marketing Service Video Lo
7 comments
Read more

Uber fined $1.1 million by UK and Dutch regulators over 2016 data breach

British and Dutch data protection regulators Tuesday hit the ride-sharing company Uber with a total fine of $1,170,892 (~ 1.1 million) for failing to protect its customers’ personal information during a 2016 cyber attack involving millions of users. Late last year, Uber unveiled that the company had suffered a  massive data breach  in October 2016, exposing names, email addresses and phone numbers of 57 million Uber riders and drivers along with driving license numbers of around 600,000 drivers. Besides this, it was also reported that instead of disclosing the breach at the time, the company  paid $100,000 in ransom  to the two hackers with access to the stolen data in exchange for keeping the incident secret and deleting the information. Today Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)  fined  Uber 385,000 pounds ($491,102), while the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Dutch DPA)  levied  a 600,000 euro ($679,790) penalty on Uber for failing to protect the personal informa
2 comments
Read more