Eight out of 10 Android devices are affected by a critical Linux vulnerability disclosed last week that allows attackers to identify hosts communicating over the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and either terminate connections or attack traffic. The flaw has been present in the TCP implementation in Linux systems since 2012 (version 3.6 of the kernel),...

Joshua Drake of Zimperium Labs talks to Mike Mimoso about the last year post-Stagefright, the effectiveness of Google’s monthly patching cycle, and some of the security enhancements forthcoming in Android N. Download: Joshua_Drake_on_Post-Stagefright_Android.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves

Mike Mimoso, Tom Spring, and Chris Brook preview Black Hat 2016, including Ivan Krstic’s talk on Apple/iOS security, Dan Kaminsky’s keynote, IoT, PAC malware, and more. Download: Threatpost_Black_Hat_2016_Preview.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves

Google today patched more than three-dozen critical vulnerabilities in Qualcomm components embedded in the Android operating system, all of them allowing attackers to gain a foothold on devices to launch further attacks. The Qualcomm-related patches are among dozens in the monthly Android Security Bulletin, which marks its first anniversary this week after its maiden voyage...

Developers with Android’s Security Team peeled back some of the layers on the mobile operating system this week; describing the lengths Google goes to protect the Linux kernel. In a post to Google’s Security Blog, Jeff Vander Stoep clarified several mitigations slated for inclusion in Nougat, the next stable Android build, and steps they’ve taken...

Google last week announced changes in the way it will handle trusted Certificate Authorities in Nougat, the latest version of the Android operating system. The changes are expected to cut into the likelihood of a successful man-in-the-middle attack, or a device falling victim to an attacker-supplied custom certificate. This also takes a bit of pressure...

Mike Mimoso, Tom Spring and Chris Brook discuss the news of the week, including all things Android: the crypto weakness, the full disk encryption bypass, and new malware, Hummingbad, which impacts the mobile operating system. The three also discuss the TP-Link router fiasco. Download: Threatpost_News_Wrap_July_8_2016.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves

The default implementation for KeyStore, the system in Android designed to store user credentials and cryptographic keys, is broken, researchers say. In a an academic paper published this week, researchers argue that the particular encryption scheme that KeyStore uses fails to protect the integrity of keys and could be exploited to allow an attacker to modify...

The frail world of the Android ecosystem has taken some hits in the past week with the disclosure of a full disk encryption bypass vulnerability and the arrival of the HummingBad malware. The FDE bypass highlighted the need to keep Android patch levels current, but as Duo Labs statistics point out, that remains a struggle...

Google wrapped up the first year of its Android Security Rewards program this week, a span of time that saw the company pay out just north of half a million dollars to security researchers who helped identify vulnerabilities in the mobile operating system. In all, the company paid 82 researchers a combined $550,000 – an...