Android's Version of Signal Has a Bug That Could Let Hackers Listen to Android Users Via Microphone

Did you know?

Hackers can listen to android users through mics, thanks to a bug in Android's version of Signal. According to a security research team from Google, this bug allowed a hacker to phone a target device, and the call would be answered without the recipient needing to even accept the call, essentially letting the hacker listen-in on the victim.

The hacking works in the following way,

The audio mute button can be pressed to force the callee device to connect as a receiver is getting a call, thus making the audio from the callee device will be audible. The issue requires a hacker to build and then use a custom version of the Signal Android software, swapping out one section of the code for another, the report shows. Also, if it weren't for a bug in the UI of the iOS version of Signal, this vulnerability would have happened in iOS devices, too.

This issue has been fixed as soon as it was discovered.