Samsung and HTC android phone information disclosure vulnerability

Overview

Certain Samsung and HTC android phones store user interactions to the dmesg buffer which could allow a a malicious application to derive certain user-inputted information from the phone.

Description

The Android operating system on certain Samsung and HTC mobile phones store certain user interactions to the dmesg buffer. A user with access to an affected phone and the ability to execute the dmesg application on the phone may be able to view the dmesg buffer without root or administrator rights. The coordinates can be used to read pin numbers, text messages, telephone numbers and other information from the phone.

---

Impact

It is possible for an attacker with the ability to run dmesg, such as with a malicious application to derive certain user-input from the phone, such as pin numbers, text messages, telephone numbers, and other information from the phone.

---

Solution

Both Samsung and HTC have reported that security updates have been released to affected handsets. Users are advised to update their phone’s to the latest operating system ROM version.

---

Vendor Information

It has been reported that the following devices are affected. Note that additional devices maybe affected.

* T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide
* HTC Merge
* Sprint EVO Shift 4G
* HTC ChaCha & AT&T Status
* HTC Desire Z & T-Mobile G2
* T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide
* Samsung Galaxy S  

---

251635

Filter by status: All Affected Not Affected Unknown

Filter by content: __ Additional information available

__ Sort by: Status Alphabetical

Expand all

Javascript is disabled. Click here to view vendors.

HTC Affected

Notified: February 17, 2012 Updated: August 08, 2012

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

Vendor References

• <http://www.htc.com/www/help/app-security-fix/&gt;

Samsung __ Affected

Notified: February 03, 2012 Updated: July 23, 2012

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

Samsung has completed the development of software updates to remove the touch coordinate logging from potentially affected devices. These software updates are currently available for download by consumers. Samsung recommends that consumers update their device software to the latest version.

Vendor Information

We are not aware of further vendor information regarding this vulnerability.

CVSS Metrics

Group	Score	Vector
Base	4.4	AV:L/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:N/A:N
Temporal	3.4	E:POC/RL:OF/RC:C
Environmental	4.1	CDP:L/TD:H/CR:ND/IR:ND/AR:ND

References

<https://jvn.jp/cert/JVNVU251635/&gt;

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Glenn ten Cate for reporting this vulnerability.

This document was written by Michael Orlando.

Other Information

CVE IDs:	CVE-2012-2980
Date Public:	2012-08-16 Date First Published: