Most Android phones can be hacked with a simple MMS message or multimedia file

The vast majority of Android phones can be hacked by sending them a specially crafted multimedia message (MMS), a security researcher has found.

The scary exploit, which only requires knowing the victim’s phone number, was developed by Joshua Drake, vice president of platform research and exploitation at mobile security firm Zimperium.

Drake found multiple vulnerabilities in a core Android component called Stagefright that’s used to process, play and record multimedia files. Some of the flaws allow for remote code execution and can be triggered when receiving an MMS message, downloading a specially crafted video file through the browser or opening a Web page with embedded multimedia content.

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