Microsoft allegedly “saved” the Android ecosystem by informing Google of a high-risk vulnerability

The friendship between Google and Microsoft seems to go beyond the Edge browser, which has almost become a Chrome clone.

According to details obtained in more or less official ways, the Android platform has just been spared a particularly tempting feat for malware and hackers interested in gaining access to the phones of selected targets. And the praise goes straight to Microsoft, with Windows developer working with Google to remove an Android vulnerability in record time, located in a software library used by many of the system applications preinstalled on Android phones and tablets. In addition, other applications offered for installation directly from the Play Store would contain the same vulnerability, the risk of infection being very high.

Specifically, this is one of the Android self-diagnostic routines, which once activated can get almost full access to the device. Features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, camera and internal storage could be accessed by hijacking these software routines, and a potential attacker could take real-time pictures and steal any data from the victim’s phone. That feature would normally have been accessible only to privileged applications used in certain clearly defined circumstances, not used by any application infiltrating the device.

Interestingly, Google has offered an alternative software API since Android 5, which offers the same functionality, but 98% of Android developers have chosen a newer alternative anyway, because it is newer and theoretically more secure.

The bad news is that although the company responsible for maintaining and updating that API has already done its job, applications that use these software technologies remain to be updated separately, a process that could take several weeks, or even months.