Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Incident Response

Twitter Says Android App Vulnerability Exposed Direct Messages

Twitter informed customers on Wednesday that a vulnerability in its Android app could have been exploited by malicious applications to access private data.

According to the social media giant, the flaw is related to a vulnerability that affects Android 8 and 9, which Google patched in October 2018.

Twitter informed customers on Wednesday that a vulnerability in its Android app could have been exploited by malicious applications to access private data.

According to the social media giant, the flaw is related to a vulnerability that affects Android 8 and 9, which Google patched in October 2018.

“Our understanding is 96% of people using Twitter for Android already have an Android security patch installed that protects them from this vulnerability. For the other 4%, this vulnerability could allow an attacker, through a malicious app installed on your device, to access private Twitter data on your device (like Direct Messages) by working around Android system permissions that protect against this,” Twitter explained.

The company says there is no evidence that the vulnerability has been exploited, but it cannot completely rule out the possibility so it has decided to take some steps to protect users.

It has updated the Android app to prevent external applications from accessing Twitter data, it has informed potentially impacted users to update the application, it has sent in-app notifications to users who could have been vulnerable to inform them if they need to take any action, and it has been working on making changes that would better protect users against such attacks.

Twitter for Android vulnerability exposed information

Last year, Twitter informed customers that a bug in its Android app led to protected tweets being made public.

Other security issues, which the company disclosed in recent months, resulted in personal information being exposed due to the way Firefox stores cached data, and the billing information of businesses being exposed through its ads and analytics services.

Related: Bug Exposed Direct Messages of Millions of Twitter Users

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Related: Bug Gives Twitter Apps More Permissions Than Shown

Related: Twitter Suspends Fake Accounts for Exploiting API Vulnerability

Related: Vulnerability in Twitter App Enabled Hackers to Obtain Information, Control Accounts

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join this in-depth briefing on how to protect executives and the enterprises they lead from the growing convergence of digital, narrative, and physical attacks.

Register

Learn how integrating BAS and Automated Penetration Testing empowers security teams to quickly identify and validate threats, enabling prompt response and remediation.

Register

People on the Move

Cybersecurity firm Absolute Security announced Harold Rivas as its new CISO.

Simon Forster has been named the new General Manager of DNS security firm Quad9.

Cybersecurity training company Immersive has named Mark Schmitz as its new CEO.

More People On The Move

Expert Insights

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest cybersecurity news, threats, and expert insights. Unsubscribe at any time.