Worried about the recent USSD Vulnerability? Don't worry Anti Spy Mobile has you covered

Worried about the recent USSD Vulnerability? Don’t worry Anti Spy Mobile has you covered

02/10/2012 none No comments

There has been a lot of talk floating around about a pretty major security blip affecting various Samsung and HTC hamdsets, among others. The way this exploit gets you is quite simple. You follow a link in your phone and it takes your phone over (please note I may be blowing the threat up a bit, but you get the idea). Pretty scary right. Until now there was no simple way of knowing if yor phone was at risk, other than spending time on various support forums, hunting through the threads. Now thanks to our friends at Anti Spy Mobile they have let us know that they have created a simple app for all to not only to see if you are at risk, but to fix the problem if you are at risk. The instructions are simple:

1. Check if your phone is vulnerable – open your mobile browser and navigate to: http://goo.gl/4IWgL (or use the barcode below)
2. If your phone is vulnerable you will see your IMEI number displayed.

This means that service MMI commands can be executed on your phone, when you visit a malicious web page. The MMI commands are service commands, and if you see the IMEI it doesn’t mean that your phone is vulnerable to the Samsungs data wipe vulnerability. BUT an attacker can still block your SIM card issuing a MMI string to change your PIN code more than 10 times. Finally your SIM card will be blocked.

3. If DON’T see the IMEI number, you are safe and you don’t need this app
4. If you see a popup with your IMEI number, then install this app from Google Play
5. Once you install the app navigate again to: http://goo.gl/4IWgL (or use the barcode below)
6. Your phone will ask you how to complete the action. Choose USSDFix and mark it as default for this action.
7. You will see a notification that your phone tries to open a page that contains a USSD call and will block it.
8. Your phone is safe now !

And just like that your safe. This is well worth the time to do and while you are there if you have not already installed Anti Spy Mobile take an extra 30 seconds to download and install it also. Also don’t forget to take a few seconds to thank the Anti Spy guys for all their hard work in keeping your phones as safe as possible, either by giving them some feedback on the Play Store or in the Xda Support thread.

Download USSD/MMI Fix

Robert Best (83 Posts)

I’m Robert Best, founder of this little site that you are looking at. And I hail from Lisburn. That is in Norn Iron, or Northern Ireland as everyone else calls us. Now on my 9th Android phone I am always looking for interesting and new things to do with Android. When I am not thinking about Android or anything Android related I can be found making music for either for my solo project or for one or two of the bands I am currently playing with. And there generally is not a moment of the day that goes by without you being able to see me with a cup of black tea.