Researchers have discovered several vulnerabilities in the SHAREit Android application, including flaws that could expose sensitive user data and allow remote code execution.
SHAREit, originally made by Chinese tech giant Lenovo, is a popular cross-platform file sharing app currently developed by Smart Media4U Technology. The company was initially based in Beijing, China, but recently moved its commercial headquarters to Singapore. Wikipedia now describes it as a global technology company in Singapore.
SHAREit is one of the tens of Chinese mobile apps banned last year by India due to national security and privacy concerns.
Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro reported on Monday that its researchers discovered some potentially serious vulnerabilities in the SHAREit app for Android, which has been installed from Google Play more than one billion times.
Trend Micro disclosed its findings in a blog post containing technical information about each issue, as well as proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code.
According to the company, the vulnerabilities found in SHAREit can be exploited by malicious applications installed on the targeted user’s device to overwrite files associated with SHAREit and execute arbitrary code, download and install other malicious applications on the smartphone, and obtain sensitive user data from the device. An attack is not easy to detect, users have been warned.
Trend Micro said it reported its findings to both Google and SHAREit developers. The cybersecurity firm decided to disclose its findings after the vendor failed to respond after being notified more than three months ago.
SHAREit for Android was last updated on February 9, but it’s unclear if any of the flaws have been patched. SecurityWeek has reached out to Smart Media4U for comment.
SHAREit developers do not appear to have a good track record when it comes to addressing vulnerability reports. Information security consultancy firm RedForce in 2019 disclosed a couple of vulnerabilities found by its employees in the SHAREit app for Android. The flaws were patched after roughly 10 weeks, but RedForce said “communication with SHAREit team was not a good experience at all; Not only they took too long to respond to our messages, they also were not cooperative in any means and we did not feel that our work or efforts were appreciated at all.”
UPDATE 02.22.2021: SHAREit has sent the following statement to SecurityWeek:
SHAREit app is a leading file sharing, content streaming and gaming platform.Since its inception, billions of users have entrusted SHAREit to quickly and securely share their files. The security of our app and our users’ data is of utmost importance to us. We are fully committed to protecting user privacy and security and adapting our app to meet security threats.
On February 15, 2021, we became aware of a report by Trend Micro about potential security vulnerabilities in our app. We worked quickly to investigate this report, and on February 19, 2021, we released a patch to address the alleged vulnerabilities.
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