bugtraq - Re: Applications can open up remote root access on G1 Phone

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Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 11:28:59 -0500
From: Jim Paris <jim@...n.com>
To: bugtraq@...urityfocus.com
Subject: Re: Applications can open up remote root access on G1 Phone

I wrote:
> Google Android applications on the T-Mobile G1 can spawn a telnetd
> that gives remote root access to your phone:
> 
> http://www.android-unleashed.com/2008/11/howto-get-root-on-your-android-g1-and.html
> 
> This particular method needs user interaction, but a rogue Android app
> could easily run telnetd automatically.  Android apps are not normally
> granted this sort of permission, and granting root is not supposed to
> even be possible.

Hi,

I was mistaken.  Turns out that init spawns a root shell on
/dev/console -- so everything you type automatically gets executed, as
root, as a command.  This is just a bug and requires the user to
physically type at the keyboard.  I don't think it could be exploited
automatically by an application.

-jim