Pen testers find holes in Google’s Android SDK

The folks over at penetration testing firm Core Security Technologies are ringing the alarm bell for flaws they’ve uncovered in Google’s Android SDK.

According to an advisory from the company:

“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). While some of these vulnerabilities stem from the use of outdated and vulnerable open source image processing libraries other were introduced by native Android code that use them or that implements new functionality. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities to yield complete control of a phone running the Android platform has been proved possible using the emulator included in the SDK, which emulates phone running the Android platform on an ARM microprocessor.”

The affected versions are as follows:

Google sent this response to Core:

“The current version of the Android SDK is an early look release to the open source community, provided so that developers can begin working with the platform to inform and shape our development of Android toward production readiness. The Open Handset Alliance welcomes input from the security community throughout this process. There will be many changes and updates to the platform before Android is ready for end users, including a full security review.”