The catastrophic Heartbleed security bug that has already bitten Yahoo Mail, the Canada Revenue Agency, and other public websites also poses a formidable threat to end-user applications and devices, including millions of Android handsets, security researchers warned.
Handsets running version 4.1.1 of Google's mobile operating system are vulnerable to attacks that might pluck passwords, the contents of personal messages, and other private information out of device memory, a company official warned on Friday. Marc Rogers, principal security researcher at Lookout Mobile, a provider of anti-malware software for Android phones, said some versions of Android 4.2.2 that have been customized by the carriers or hardware manufacturers have also been found to be susceptible. Rogers said other releases may contain the critical Heartbleed flaw as well. Officials with BlackBerry have warned the company's messenger app for iOS, Mac OS X, Android, and Windows contains the critical defect and have released an update to correct it.
The good news, according to researchers at security firm Symantec, is that major browsers don't rely on the OpenSSL cryptographic library to implement HTTPS cryptographic protections. That means people using a PC to browse websites should be immune to attacks that allow malicious servers to extract data from an end user's computer memory. Users of smartphones, and possibly those using routers and "Internet of things" appliances, aren't necessarily as safe.
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