Kernel Waiter Exploit from the Hacking Team Leak Still Being Used

Although the Hacking Team leak took place several months ago, the impact of this data breach—where exploit codes were made public and spurred a chain of attacks—can still be felt until today. We recently spotted malicious Android apps that appear to use an exploit found in the Hacking Team data dumps. The apps, found in certain websites, could allow remote attackers to gain root privilege when successfully exploited. Mobile devices running on Android version 4.4 (KitKat) and below, which account for nearly 57% of total Android devices, are susceptible to attacks that may abuse this flaw.