A flaw in the Android operating system, which allowed hackers to gain unencrypted data of a user over public WiFi networks, has been fixed up by the Google, the maker of the OS.
The security flaw was highlighted by a group of German developers and was reported by The Mobile Indian earlier too.
It was found that Android devices running on 2.3.3 or older versions are particularly susceptible especially when the one uses services such as Google Calender and Google docs to be sent over-the-air unencrypted over a public WiFi network. This may allow hackers, present in the network, to gain the user’s login ID and password.
Realising the gravity of the situation, Google has released a server side patch that will provide a solution for this issue in no time. Users do not need to do anything for installing this patch, it will be automatically pushed to the device.
The update process has already begun and Google expects the whole process to finalise within a week.
“Today we’re starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in calendar and contacts. This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days,” said Google’s spokesperson to Computerworld.
In the latest release of the Android Gingerbread 2.3.4, this issue has been answered and users running the new operating system are not prone to any attacks through this.
However, the percentage of users using the Gingerbread OS is very thin and rest of the population was largely at risk before this patch.