MediaTek: smartphone vulnerability (LIST)

There is a vulnerability of some MediaTek SoCs that has put a number of smartphone models at risk for some time: here is the list of devices.

what could potentially happen to a smartphone, when there is a security hole somewhere in the software, could be very serious. For this reason, the experts are always looking for any vulnerabilities to make the smartphone, now the custodians of our private life, as safe as possible. Recently, it has emerged that some MediaTek processors have unwittingly exposed a long list of smartphone models from different manufacturers to serious risks. Fortunately, the security flaw has been fixed, but the fix will only come with Google’s March patches .

MediaTek, the flaw: the list of smartphones

The experts of XDA Developers discovered the problem a year ago . Specifically, a forum user noticed it, while he was intent on looking for a workaround that would allow him to obtain ROOT permissions on an Amazon Fire tablet. During his attempts, the user realized that – thanks to a security hole in the Command Queue driver – it was possible to develop a procedure to temporarily obtain ROOT permissions.

It was soon realized that the discovered vulnerability, called CVE-2020-0069 , also involved a long series of smartphone models with certain types of MediaTek processors on board.

Of course, the risks arising from the improper use of this type of flaw are quite clear: obtaining ROOT permissions on a smartphone or tablet means, potentially, being able to take absolute control of the devices . For this reason, the experts from Google and MediaTek immediately started working to be able to solve the problem and – as anticipated – the definitive fix should arrive with the March security patches.

XDA Developers has provided a list. It is good to check if your smartphone or tablet is present: