CybersecurityUpdated November 5

GhostMap lets a crafted app crash Android phones.

Bitdefender researchers say the trigger is installing a specially crafted Android app. It needs no permissions, yet it can repeatedly crash a core system process. GhostMap takes advantage of how Android handles ZIP compression, and the repeated crashes could leave a phone unusable. Recovery may require a factory reset or manually deleting the malicious file through ADB; neither is guaranteed to work. No in-the-wild exploitation had been identified in the report, though public disclosure could make it easier for attackers to develop an exploit.

2 publishers2 reports

Coverage started November 5