The vulnerabilities can be exploited when a target downloads a video or other content that’s rendered by the chip. Targets can also be attacked by installing malicious apps that require no permissions at all, ArsTechnica reported.

From there, attackers can monitor locations and listen to nearby audio in real-time and exfiltrate photos and videos. Exploits also make it possible to render the phone completely unresponsive. Infections can be hidden from the operating system in a way that makes disinfecting difficult.

Snapdragon is what’s known as a system on a chip that provides a host of components, such as a CPU and a graphics processor. One of the functions, known as digital signal processing, or DSP, tackles a variety of tasks, including charging abilities and video, audio, augmented reality, and other multimedia functions. Phone makers can also use DSPs to run dedicated apps that enable custom features.

New attack surface

“While DSP chips provide a relatively economical solution that allows mobile phones to provide end users with more functionality and enable innovative features—they do come with a cost,” researchers from security firm Check Point wrote in a brief report of the vulnerabilities they discovered. “These chips introduce new attack surface and weak points to these mobile devices. DSP chips are much more vulnerable to risks as they are being managed as ‘Black Boxes’ since it can be very complex for anyone other than their manufacturer to review their design, functionality or code.”

Qualcomm has released a fix for the flaws, but so far it hasn’t been incorporated into the Android OS or any Android device that uses Snapdragon, Check Point said. When I asked when Google might add the Qualcomm patches, a company spokesman said to check with Qualcomm. The chipmaker didn’t respond to an email asking.

Check Point is withholding technical details about the vulnerabilities and how they can be exploited until fixes make their way into end-user devices. Check Point has dubbed the vulnerabilities Achilles. The more than 400 distinct bugs are tracked as CVE-2020-11201, CVE-2020-11202, CVE-2020-11206, CVE-2020-11207, CVE-2020-11208 and CVE-2020-11209.

In a statement, Qualcomm officials said: “Regarding the Qualcomm Compute DSP vulnerability disclosed by Check Point, we worked diligently to validate the issue and make appropriate mitigations available to OEMs. We have no evidence it is currently being exploited. We encourage end users to update their devices as patches become available and to only install applications from trusted locations such as the Google Play Store.”

Check Point said that Snapdragon is included in about 40 percent of phones worldwide. With an estimated 3 billion Android devices, that amounts to more than a billion phones. In the US market, Snapdragons are embedded in around 90 percent of devices.

There’s not much helpful guidance to provide users for protecting themselves against these exploits. Downloading apps only from Play can help, but Google’s track record of vetting apps shows that advice has limited efficacy. There’s also no way to effectively identify booby-trapped multimedia content.

Samsung could possibly announce at its Galaxy S10 press conference later this month, including up to five phones and an entire wearables lineup, we’re now leaning that LG’s new superphone has broken cover.

It turns an entire trail of bread crumbs into a remarkably decent picture of a phone worth watching for, the Verge reported.

We knew that LG was bringing a 5G smartphone to Sprint in the first half of 2019, and separately, we’d heard that the company might debut its rumored, 5G-equipped V50 superphone alongside the likely-to-be-more-reasonably-priced LG G8 at Mobile World Congress later this month.

But now, prominent phone leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks) has given us what’s almost certainly our full first press pictures of the V50, and it seems those two reports are describing the same thing.

The LG V50 ThinQ appears to be headed to Sprint’s 5G nacent network, and we should see an announcement on February 24.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada found that mobile phone use is making people more distracted, distant and drained as a result of its pervasiveness in our modern lives.

Even having a mobile phone within easy access during a meal is enough to make diners not enjoy the experience as much as those who keep their devices out of reach while they eat.

As part of the study, 300 restaurant goers in Vancouver filled out a questionnaire after their meal that was designed to gauge their feelings of social connectedness, enjoyment, distraction and boredom, Independent reported.

The experiment required some participants to keep their phones on the table with sound notifications turned on, while the rest were told to put their handsets on silent and place them in a container.

“People who were allowed to use their phones during dinner had more trouble staying present in the moment,” said the study’s lead author Ryan Dwyer, whose research was presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association.

“Decades of research on happiness tell us that engaging positively with others is critical for our wellbeing. Modern technology may be wonderful, but it can easily sidetrack us and take away from the special moments we have with friends and family in person.”

A second part of the study involved a survey of 120 students in West Virginia, who were questioned five times a day for one week about what they had been doing in the 15 minutes leading up to the survey.

Students who had been using their smartphones during face-to-face interactions with other people reported feeling less enjoyment and being less interested in the conversation than those that didn’t.

Dr Elizabeth Dunn, the study’s co-author, noted that the survey’s results were particularly remarkable considering students are commonly known as digital natives.

“We assumed that this generation would be more adept at multi-tasking between using their phones and interacting with others, but we found out even moderate levels of phone use undermined the benefits of engaging with others,” Dr Dunn said.

It is an issue recognised by mobile phone makers, as well as the companies responsible for developing the software that devices use.

Earlier this week, Google released the ninth edition of its Android mobile operating system, which included controls to help people spend less time on their smartphones. The “digital wellbeing” feature for Android – the world’s most popular mobile OS – allows people to set timers on specific apps and lock them out when a limit is reached.

“While much of the time we spend on our phones is useful, many of us wish we could disconnect more easily and free up time for other things,” Google said in a blog post introducing the new controls. “In fact, over 70 per cent of people we talked to in our research said they want more help with this.”

Other studies presented at the symposium found that narcissists are more likely to spend time on social media than more compassionate people.

Also, people with lower emotional intelligence are reportedly more likely to use apps like Facebook and Instagram.