Android Bug Interprets All Text Entries As System Commands

by Chris Moor

A rather shocking bug has been discovered for G1 firmware RC 29 and below. The bug apparently interprets any and all text entries as system commands which are then executed with superuser privileges.

An Android bug report filed the following issue:

Funny story behind finding this:

I was in the middle of a text conversation with my girl when she asked why I hadn’t responded. I had just rebooted my phone and the first thing I typed was a response to her text which simply stated “Reboot” – which, to my surprise, rebooted my phone.

You can test this yourself by opening the G1 keyboard and typing the following:

<return>reboot<return>

A new firmware update, RC30, is currently being rolled out to G1 owners to fix this issue.

[via ZDNet.com]

» See more articles by Chris Moor

Categorized as Android News

Comments

CarveMeASmile

I just tried this and it definetly rebooted…WTH! lol did it right in the browser
http://blog.nobien.net Matt

I’m still on RC19! What gives?!
Steve King

Wow… this seems like a really bad thing. I am still on RC29. They should be a bit more proactive about sending the updates.
Tara Scuderi

allowed to taiwan

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