New Delhi: Google researchers have warned that millions of Android smartphones are vulnerable to hacking due to a faulty graphics processing unit (GPU) inside the devices. The tech giant’s Project Zero team said it alerted chip designer ARM about the GPU bug, and that the British chip designer has fixed the vulnerabilities. However, smartphone manufacturers including Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo and Google “have not released patches to fix the vulnerabilities as of earlier this week,” the Project Zero team claimed.
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The discussed vulnerabilities have been fixed by the main vendor, but at the time of publication, these fixes had not reached affected Android devices (including Pixel, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, etc.). Devices with a Mali GPU are Currently, five issues were reported by Google researchers to ARM when they were discovered between June and July 2022, said Ian Beer of Project Zero.
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ARM promptly fixed the issues in July and August 2022, disclosing them as security issues on the Arm Mali driver vulnerabilities page (CVE-2022-36449) and publishing the source of the patched driver on the developer’s public website.
However, Google has found that “all of our test devices using the Mali GPU are still vulnerable to these issues. CVE-2022-36449 is not mentioned in any downstream security bulletins”. The researchers said that users are advised to patch as soon as possible as soon as a version with security updates becomes available, so the same applies to vendors and companies.
“Companies need to remain vigilant, follow upstream sources closely, and do their best to provide full patches to users as soon as possible,” the tech giant added. According to SamMobile, Samsung’s Galaxy S22 series devices and the company’s Snapdragon-powered phones were not affected by these bugs.
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