Android WARNING: Shock issue discovered with popular Google app, do YOU use it?

users are being warned after security experts discovered an issue with a widely used Google app.

Android is one of the most used pieces of software in the world, with more than two billion active devices running Google’s mobile OS every month.

The hugely popular operating system comes with a number of preloaded Google apps that users can play with as soon as they turn on their device.

And security experts have discovered a shock issue with one of these Android apps.

Google Chrome is the default browser in the Android operating system.

And experts at Nightwatch Cybersecurity discovered a vulnerability with the Android version of Chrome that could leak details about the device.

Information about the device’s hardware model, firmware version and security patch level could be leaked.

In a post online Nightwatch researcher Yakov Shafranovich said: “Google’s Chrome browser, WebView and Chrome Tabs for Android discloses information about the hardware model, firmware version and security patch level of the device on which it is running.

“This also affects any Android applications that are using Chrome to render web content.

“This information can be used for track users and fingerprint devices.”

And Shafranovich warned: “It can also be used to determine which vulnerabilities a particular device is vulnerable to in order to target exploits.”

The researcher also said that the problem was discovered back in 2015.

Shafranovich said: “While the vendor (Google) rejected the initial bug report in 2015, they had issued a partial fix in October 2018 for Chrome v70.

“The fix hides the firmware information while retaining the hardware model identifier.

“All prior versions are believed to be affected. Users are encouraged to upgrade to version 70 or later.

“Since this fix doesn’t apply to WebView usage, app developers should manually override the User Agent configuration in their apps.”

In other Android news Express.co.uk recently reported on fake apps discovered on the Google Play Store.

Security experts at Quick Heal have spotted the offending apps which have been downloaded tens of thousands of times.

These apps were located on the Google Play Store and disguised themselves as PDF readers, scanners and converters.

However, while the apps appear to be genuine Quick Heal said they don’t offer the functionality users download the apps for.

Instead, these apps are designed to increase the download count of other applications and improve their ratings.

In a post online, Quick Heal said: “Quick Heal Security Lab has spotted few FakeApps with more than 50,000+ installations on Google Play Store.

“These applications appear to be genuine as a PDF reader, PDF Downloader, PDF Scanner etc., but don’t have such functionality.

“The main purpose of these apps is to increase the download count of other applications and improve their ratings.”

Quick Heal reported these apps to Google and they have since been taken down from the Google Play Store.