Smartphones running on MediaTek chipsets vulnerable to simple SMS hack

Security vulnerability is increasing by the day and with almost 2 billion smartphones users around the globe, they are the next big target. Recently a peculiar hack was found by a blogger which poses a threat for Android smartphones running on MediaTek processors.

The simple hack enables a person to remotely reboot an Android smartphone by sending the symbol “=” as an SMS. Apparently, this symbol means shutdown and reboot in MediaTek chipset language. We tried this on a Xolo smartphone (running on the MediaTek MT6582 processor) and every time an SMS with the = symbol was received; the phone would go into a quick reboot. This could be a serious issue for smartphone users in India as brand like Micromax, Xolo, Lava and Karbonn have majority of products running on MediaTek processors.

We haven’t heard any official statement from MediaTek regarding this issue. Do try this and let us know if you are facing the issue.

Source: Phone Arena