GOOGLE Pixel owners have been warned to update their smartphones now after experts found a bug that can reverse some edits you’ve made to screenshots.
Experts claim that the device’s Markup tool has a security flaw that could be used to reveal sensitive information you think you’ve hidden.
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People often do this when they’ve taken a screenshot of something but want to scribble out private details, such as bank account details from an image.
Or they crop it out.
But even if you update your device, any previously edited screenshots could still be vulnerable, engineers Simon Aarons and David Buchanan claim.
They’ve dubbed it the “acropalypse”.
Apparently it’s all because Markup saves the original screenshot instead of deleting it behind the scenes.
And worryingly, the issue has existed for years.
There’s no telling how long hackers have been aware of it and been able to actively exploit it.
“You can patch it, but you can’t easily un-share all the vulnerable images you may have sent,” Buchanan said on Twitter.
“The bug existed for about 5 years before being patched, which is mind-blowing given how easy it is to spot when you look closely at an output file.”
The flaw was reported to Google and was fixed in the March update.
It was flagged as a “high” risk bug, so make sure you update your Pixel device.
However, as The Verge reports, the update was made for the Pixel 4A, 5A, 7, and 7 Pro.
We don’t know when it’ll be sorted for other devices.
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