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Exploitable Backhole Accidentally Left In Some MediaTek-based Phones (ndtv.com)

Lirodon writes: MediaTek has confirmed findings by security researcher Justin Case, who discovered that some devices running Android KitKat on MediaTek processors (often used in lower-cost devices) had a debug function, meant to be removed on production devices, accidentally left in by their manufacturer. This hole could be used to trivially gain root access, among other possibilities.

12 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Backhole? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did you mean backdoor? Black hole?

    1. Re: Backhole? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      The LHC must be involved...

    2. Re:Backhole? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Did you mean backdoor? Black hole?

      Oh god, this one's going to bring the goatse out.

  2. Backhole? by ltcraben · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's called a "backdoor" and here is a link to more information (the link posted in the summary has nothing to do with the backdoor): http://androidcommunity.com/se...

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    I had a sig once, but someone stole it.
  3. Backhole? by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 2

    Makes it sound like the device has an anus! I don't want that in my pocket!

  4. ATTN: BIZX OVERLORDS by slashdice · · Score: 5, Funny

    I figure you guys have no idea what slashdot is about. Let me give you a brief history:

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    A.D. 1769: James Watt pate

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  5. What kind of parents..... by wkwilley2 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Justin Case, we should patch it anyway.

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    Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
  6. Re:Nice system by gstoddart · · Score: 2

    LOL, I let Chrome translate it for me, and I got this:

    From the date of the ultra-popular program "Emi-ten" of Nippon TV.
    But Korakuen Hall of the day, it had been wrapped in from usual little different atmosphere.
    Mumu~tsu, number of cameras is 3 units often! It big also strangely in Takeshi bone!
    Profusely many people! It is not a even if field technician you look, it's bossy It's beautiful.

    Which tells me letting Chrome translate stuff from Japanese is a terrible idea.

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    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  7. To get to the gist of it by jones_supa · · Score: 2

    What devices are affected?

    Is this something actually dangerous, or something that only a security researcher can exploit in theoretical conditions?

  8. Re:Nice system by Gr8Apes · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because they haven't progressed to contextual translation yet, which includes phrases and grammar structure translation. Any multi-lingual person will be able to tell you that they do not translate word for word, they need the full phrase or more to go from language a to b, especially if those languages have varying grammatical structures and rules governing things like adverb and adjective placement. Also note that phrases like "top of the morning to you" should be translated to an appropriate (morning) greeting and not some nonsensical word for word replacement scheme.

    --
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  9. Re:Nice system by gstoddart · · Score: 2

    English and German are even in the same family linguistically speaking

    In some ways yes, but apparently in some ways no.

    Years ago a friend was taking German classes, and apparently it has subject/verb stuff which can be at the end of sentences.

    So one example of how it fell apart was a place in which the speaker went on for a long time, and the translator just stopped ... because without knowing what was at the end of the long-winded sentence it was impossible know what to say next. It was a lot of stuff which couldn't be translated into English until it was all done -- and it took a VERY long time for that speaker to be done.

    I got the impression that are still enough structural differences that it's more than a little challenging for skilled humans to do it.

    So, if translating in real time can be near impossible, then I assume it's still damned easy for static translations to get mired down into stuff it can't handle well.

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    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  10. Justin Case? by BronsCon · · Score: 2

    Really? Justin Case? If that's not a clearly fake name, I don't know what is. And a link to a completely unrelated non-english article? Whoever the hell submitted this spam should never be allowed to submit again and whoever posted it should be fired.

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    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.