A security flaw in the Blackphone 1 smartphone allows anyone to take control of the device.
The Blackphone 1 smartphone, one of many privacy-focused phones on the market, has been found to have a critical vulnerability that allows attackers to hijack the phone.
This flaw was discovered by a team of SentinelOne security researchers, during their training programs that include learning about the Icera modem used in Blackphone 1 smartphones.
What was found was a vulnerability that allows hackers to run shell commands or other applications on the phone, which could allow them to send instructions to the phone to make it run as they wish.
Attackers could use these commands to answer or reject your calls, send or receive messages, change your phone settings, make calls, and conference calls, etc. In short, if an attacker had managed to exploit this vulnerability in your mobile phone, they could do whatever they wanted with it.
SentinelOne earned $500 for discovering the vulnerability after Silent Circle ran a bounty program in which it would reward anyone who found a vulnerability in its phones.
Silent Circle fixed the bug with the PrivatOS1.1.13 RC3 issue, which is a version of the company's Android operating system used in their Blackphone models.
In a Q&A session, Silent Circle claimed that for the vulnerability to work, the device would have to be affected by malware, so users who haven't been affected by malware shouldn't worry. The security fix has been automatically installed on all devices.
Note: The Blackphone 2.x Branch is not affected by this issue, so users who own any version of Blackphone2 should not worry.
