Google’s Android operating system has been suffering some security hiccups and vulnerabilities since last year. Now, security vulnerabilities have been found on a few HTC Android smartphones as well.
According to reports, there is one HTCLogger App which runs on HTC smartphones as a native service. This data collecting service app typically keeps tab of user information and logging patterns for purposes that not known so far. It collects information about the user’s web browsing activity, last known network, GPS locations, SMS data, system logs, phone numbers and even email addresses.
HTC devices affected by this vulnerability are EVO 3G, EVO 4G, Thunderbolt, EVO Shift 4G, MyTouch 4G Slide and Sensation.
Trevor Eckhart, administrator of Infected ROM community forum posted about the security vulnerabilities and then Artem Russakovskii blogged in detail about its effects at Android Police.
With such a severe security loophole, Eckhart suggested that the security research of the vulnerability is on-going while the patch for it is difficult to obtain without ROOT access to the phone. Also, several Android developers would agree that installing apps from unknown sources and third-party app stores needs to be avoided by affected HTC devices.
HTC has refrained from making any public statements but considering the seriousness of the vulnerability, the company is certainly working to roll out a patch for it. So far there is no solution to the problem.