Over the weekend, users over at XDA-developers have discovered a significant vulnerability in the kernel for a number of Samsung devices. Apparently, an application can exploit this vulnerability to gain full R/W access to all physical memory on devices that use the Exynos 4210 or 4412 chipsets, which power some of the most popular Android devices on the market, including the Galaxy S II, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note 2. XDA members have created a patch for the vulnerability, but it causes the devices’ camera to become inoperable.
Samsung have been notified about the issue, but haven’t released any statement as yet.
Source: XDA-Developers.
Via: Talk Android.
I like how you left out the part with how the device needs to be rooted for this exploit to work.
The article I read about this earlier in, had it hidden away in a sea of txt that it required root and wasn’t obvious from the title either.
From what I gathered from the linked XDA post, this exploit can be used to gain root access. Doesn’t mean the phone needs to be rooted for apps to exploit this vulnerability
interesting, what I had read is that it requires root, maybe it was just the wording?
the simple fix which applies the correct permissions to the /dev/exynos-mem location (and renders the camera inoperable) requires root. to actually use the exploit you do not need root, which is why this is so dangerous – apps can potentially gain root through this exploit, then using other bugs (eg eMMC superbrick bug), can physically damage the device and hard brick it, beyond even JTAG repair.
Not sure what you were reading earlier, but from what I’ve read, the exploit can be used to gain root access. It affects all phones, rooted or not.