More than a dozen popular Android apps are under question, leaking data of users
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Android Apps: More than a dozen popular applications that have been downloaded by over 140 million people have reportedly been found to leak data. The data exposed includes users’ names, email addresses and many other personal information. According to media reports, the researchers of Cyber News have detected the leak and they have also released a report on the same.
Some of the apps mentioned in the report are Universal TV Remote Control, Remote for Roku: Codematics, Hybrid Warrior: Dungeon of the Overlord and Find My Kids: Child Cell Phone Location Tracker.
Leaks are possible due to misconfiguration of databases that are often managed by developers without security training, which makes them easy targets for cybercriminals. Firebase is a mobile app development platform that provides developers with features such as hosting, analytics, and real-time cloud storage. The platform was acquired in 2014 and has since been one of the most popular data-storage solutions for Android apps.
According to media reports, research has shown that due to poor configuration on Firebase, anyone who knows the correct URL can access the real-time database and user information of these popular apps without any kind of authentication. The apps are leaking not only the data of the users but also their private messages.
1100 apps analyzed
To investigate, the researchers analyzed 1,100 most popular apps in the Google Play store across 55 different categories. For popular metrics, the researchers used the ‘TOP{CATEGORY}’ collection provided on the Play Store.
According to media reports, the researchers reported their search to Google and asked them to help the developers, but the tech giant ignored all queries. Although the researchers only looked at apps on the Play Store, it is likely that iOS apps may also be affected by these misconceptions as Firebase is platform agnostic.
The researcher suggests, “If you are an app developer, always be sure to follow the official Firebase real-time database security guidelines provided by Google.”
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