Security Holes In Google's Android SDK

Redon Buckeye writes "Google's Android software development kit is using several outdated and vulnerable open-source image processing libraries, some of which can be exploited to take complete control of mobile devices running the Android platform. From the article: 'Several vulnerabilities have been found in Android's core libraries for processing graphic content in some of the most used image formats (PNG, GIF, and BMP). While some of these vulnerabilities stem from the use of outdated and vulnerable open source image-processing libraries, other were introduced by native Android code that uses them or that implements new functionality.'"

Comments

Re:yawn

[nacule]

| Security holes in beta software you say? Wow. Maybe this is why they kept gmail in beta till now. Perfect excuse for security holes

Who The Hell Is Still Using BMP?

[ewhac]

Several vulnerabilities have been found in Android's core libraries for processing graphic content in some of the most used image formats (PNG, GIF an BMP)

Having had the ignominious privilege of writing a BMP image parser some years ago, I can state without fear of meaningful contradiction that it's one of the worst image file formats ever devised by creatures claiming to be Man, and that it needs to die die die!

PNG does everything BMP does, and does it better. Just throw away the BMP library and save yourself the maintenance headache. No one will miss it.

Schwab

Re:Who The Hell Is Still Using BMP?

[totally bogus dude]

But then we couldn't have fun watching images load from the bottom up! It looks so cool and is totally worth a few extra (mega)bytes!

Re:Who The Hell Is Still Using BMP?

[JNighthawk]

It's a fantastic way to learn how to parse and render an image. You get all the basics, plus you get to try and find out why your texture is rendering upside down :-)

Oh noes!

[aztektum]

My new smartphone is vulnerable to malicious haxx0rz! Oh wait, it runs Windows Mobile! I'm *so* relieved!!