Android lockscreen bypass allows Gemini to send SMS without verification | Infinium-tech

These things happen from time to time, especially when dealing with such complex software with so many edge cases and even more so when dealing with software with special privileges like Gemini’s ability to run from the lock screen.

In traditional “hacking” circles, this is known as an authentication bypass vulnerability or lockscreen bypass. It’s always so interesting to see what things people find or stumble upon most often. You can watch the short video yourself. Still, it happens something like this: The user has intentionally disabled access to certain apps like Messages from Gemini, so naturally, once someone with physical access to the device tries to call Gemini from the lock screen and ask him to send a message, the phone asks for a PIN. so far so good.

Now the “magic” and apparently broken bit – the user then presses the “Add Attachment” button along with the Continue button, and that bypasses the PIN for some reason. And from there, it’s not just SMS messaging privileges either. The video shows that the “attacker” managed to re-enable access to WhatsApp, even though it had previously been turned off in Gemini settings as well. Attractive stuff.

Apparently, this particular vulnerability has been reported on Android 16 since May and is “known” by Google, and it is already being fixed. This affects more than just Pixel devices, although we don’t have conclusive information about which Android flavors are vulnerable.

Anyway, as we said, these things happen from time to time and not only on Android. For example, entire dedicated online communities are discovering such edge case bypass situations on iOS and often with more malicious intent than sending unauthorized SMS, such as unlocking and reselling a blocked stolen phone.

Source | through