Hundreds of millions of Android devices are at risk of being hijacked by a new and previously unknown threat. Certifi-gate is a set of vulnerabilities in the authorization methods between mobile Remote Support Tool (mRST) apps and system-level plugs used by virtually every Android device maker and network service provider. Exploitation gives malicious apps unrestricted device access with elevated privileges they can use to access user data and to perform a variety of actions usually available to the device owner only. In this session, our researchers will walk through the technical root cause of these responsibly-disclosed vulnerabilities including hash collisions, IPC abuse and certificate forging which allow an attacker to grant their malware complete control of a victim’s device. We’ll explain why these vulnerabilities are a serious problem that in some ways can’t be completely eliminated, show a real-world example of an exploiting app found on Google Play, demonstrate an exploit against a live device, and provide remediation advice.
Shai is a security industry expert with more than 12 years of experience in cyber security, data analytics and product management. He has a proven track record of turning cutting-edge research and technology into products that solve complex problems and is currently a product manager for Check Point Mobile Prevention. Prior to this role, he was a data scientist at Lacoon Mobile Security which was acquired by Check Point in April of 2015. As a member of the Tel-Aviv University’s Applied Machine Learning Group, he collaborated with a range of private sector companies on projects related to nano-particles toxicology, military helicopter fault prediction, and terrorist activity detection in communications networks. Shai received his BSc in industrial engineering from Tel-Aviv University.