Vulnerability: Unprotected Access to MTKLogger App Components on LG and Other Devices

CVE-2016-10135 · MEDIUM Severity

AV:N/AC:M/AU:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

An issue was discovered on LG devices using the MTK chipset with L(5.0/5.1), M(6.0/6.0.1), and N(7.0) software, and RCA Voyager Tablet, BLU Advance 5.0, and BLU R1 HD devices. The MTKLogger app with a package name of com.mediatek.mtklogger has application components that are accessible to any application that resides on the device. Namely, the com.mediatek.mtklogger.framework.LogReceiver and com.mediatek.mtklogger.framework.MTKLoggerService application components are exported since they contain an intent filter, are not protected by a custom permission, and do not explicitly set the android:exported attribute to false. Therefore, these components are exported by default and are thus accessible to any third party application by using android.content.Intent object for communication. These application components can be used to start and stop the logs using Intent objects with embedded data. The available logs are the GPS log, modem log, network log, and mobile log. The base directory that contains the directories for the 4 types of logs is /sdcard/mtklog which makes them accessible to apps that require the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission. The GPS log contains the GPS coordinates of the user as well as a timestamp for the coordinates. The modem log contains AT commands and their parameters which allow the user's outgoing and incoming calls and text messages to be obtained. The network log is a tcpdump network capture. The mobile log contains the Android log, which is not available to third-party apps as of Android 4.1. The LG ID is LVE-SMP-160019.

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