HTC’s version of Android is posing a serious threat to critical user data in the light of the recent Security loopholes found in the popular Open-Source Operating System. Apparently, HTC’s Sense interface, installed on the likes of HTC Evo 4G and Thunderbolt, give access to personal data, adding to the rising number of Android viruses and malware.
Sense, the graphical user interface by HTC for smartphones, manages almost everything on the phone ranging from GPS information to SMS data (plain numbers and encoded data). Now any application on the HTC can gain access to all those personal files with just a permissions request. Access to personal data so simply can put users at risk, especially now when people have web access and mobile banking is a norm.
Considering Android is a hugely popular Mobile OS, a vulnerability of this degree might hamper its current position in the market. Android Police’s research on the GUI claims that any application on the device which requests for android.permission.INTERNET can get access to hordes of data digging as deep as the system logs. Putting so much information on the table, theoretically, it is close to cloning a device using a subset of the data leaked by the system.
Adding to all the chaos, HTC has another app called HtcLoggers.apk which holds the power to collect all data and provide to anyone with permission through a local port. A way out here is to remove the HtcLoggers.apk file but it wouldn’t be simple task for non-technical crowd who will have to wait for an update. HTC has promised for a Security Patch soon, but until then it is strictly advised to take care of your personal data.
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