Android ZIP parser bug crashes phones in loop
Original title: A banking malware sample led researchers to an Android bug that can loop-crash phones
Bitdefender Labs discovered GhostMap, a vulnerability in Android's ZIP handling that crashes devices in a loop without permissions or interaction; Google has no plans to patch it.
Bitdefender Labs researchers built an app with no executable code or permissions that triggers a crash loop on a Pixel 10 running Android 17. The flaw stems from how Android parses ZIP structures in APKs. The bug was found while analyzing a banking dropper sample. A factory reset is required to clear the crash loop. No exploitation in the wild has been observed.
Unconfirmed: Whether booby-trapped apps could bypass app store review is unknown
- Triggers crash loop on Pixel 10 with Android 17
- No executable code or permissions needed
- Factory reset required to clear crash
- Present in AOSP since Android 10
- No observed use in the wild
Impact: loop crash of Android devices
- Vendors
- Bitdefender
- Products
- Android
From the original article
3 min read at helpnetsecurity.com
Bitdefender Labs researchers built an Android app that contains no executable code and requests no permissions, and installing it leaves a Pixel 10 in a crash loop that can take a factory reset to clear. The flaw, which Bitdefender calls GhostMap, comes from how Android reads the ZIP structure inside an APK. The app does not need to be opened.
By Mirko Zorz · helpnetsecurity.com
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