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Quad Rooter is a set of four vulnerabilities affecting Android devices built using Qualcomm chipsets. Qualcomm is the world’s leading designer of LTE chipsets with a 65% share of the LTE modem baseband market. If any one of the four vulnerabilities is exploited, an attacker can trigger privilege escalations for the purpose of gaining root access to a device in figure 1.-[1]
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An attacker can exploit these vulnerabilities using a malicious app. Such an app would require no special permissions to take advantage of these vulnerabilities, alleviating any suspicion users may have when installing.-[1]
What Android devices are at risk?
Quad Rooter vulnerabilities are found in software drivers that ship with Qualcomm chipsets. Any Android device built using these chipsets is at risk. The drivers, which control communication between chipset components, become incorporated into Android builds manufacturers develop for their devices.
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The vulnerabilities can be exploited by sending a single multimedia text message to an unpatched Android smartphone. While the exploit is deadly, in some cases, where phones parse the attack code prior to the message being opened, the exploits are silent and the user would have little chance of defending their data. Stage fright is the media playback service for Android. Stage fright in versions of Android may contain multiple vulnerabilities, including several integer overflows, which may allow a remote attacker to execute code on the device.
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As far as we know, Android antivirus apps won’t save you from Stage fright attacks. They don’t necessarily have enough system permissions to intercept MMS messages and interfering with system components. Google also can’t update the Google Play Services component in Android to fix this bug, a patchwork solution Google often employs when security holes show up. To really prevent yourself from being compromised, you need to prevent your messaging app of choice from downloading and launching MMS messages. In general, this means disabling the “MMS auto-retrieval” setting in its settings. When you receive an MMS message, it won’t automatically download — you’ll have to download it by tapping a placeholder or something similar.
you won’t be at risk unless you choose to download the MMS. You shouldn’t do this. If the MMS is from someone you don’t know, definitely ignore it. If the MMS is from a friend, it would be possible their phone has been compromised if a worm does begin to take off. It’s safest to never download MMS messages if your phone is vulnerable.
To disable MMS message auto-retrieval, follow the appropriate steps for your messaging app.Messaging (built into Android): Open Messaging, tap the menu button, and tap Settings. Scroll down to the “Multimedia (MMS) messages” section and uncheck “Auto-retrieve.”Messenger (by Google): Open Messenger, tap the menu, tap Settings, tap Advanced, and disable “Auto retrieve.”
Install Cyanogen Mod
Cyanogen Mod is a third-party custom ROM of Android often used by enthusiasts. It brings a current version of Android to devices that manufacturers have stopped supporting. This isn’t really the ideal solution for the average person as it requires unlocking your phone’s boot loader. But, if your phone is supported, you can use this trick to get a current version of Android with current security updates. It’s not a bad idea to install Cyanogen Mod if your phone is no longer being supported by its manufacturer. Cyanogen Mod has fixed the Stage fright vulnerability in the nightly versions, and the fix should make it to the stable version soon via an OTA update.-[2]