Android has been the most popular operating system for mobile devices and tablet computers for many years now. Consequently, it has also become a new target for the hackers and cyber-criminals. They can use known system vulnerabilities in Android to gain superuser access and take over your device. Since Android is an open source project, these vulnerabilities in Android are usually fixed not long after they are detected by security researchers. But not all the smart-phones receive the updates to the latest core files used by Android. In fact, some of the manufacturers give up releasing updates to their older smart phones and release updates only for their new models. In the least, what you can do is find out if your device is vulnerable to some known exploits.
Recently, some security researchers at IBM discovered what is now known as serialization vulnerability in Android. It is also being called as “one class to rule all” exploit. According to the Avira Blog, this vulnerability affects 60 percent of the Android devices. Perhaps looking at the serious nature of the exploit, Avira has released a new app called Avira Vulnerability Checker app that allows anyone to check their Android device for the presence of the serialization vulnerability.
Using the Avira Vulnerability Checker app is easier than taking a bad selfie. All you have to do is launch the app and touch the Check button. It displays the results almost instantly. On my old Android KitKat smart phone, it detected the serialization vulnerability – as expected.
The only possible protection before your device manufacturer releases an update is to avoid installing apps from outside Google Play store. Avira app gives you information to in this regard and you can also find a link to their blog about the serialization vulnerability in Android.
At the moment, the Avira Vulnerability Checker app detects only the serialization vulnerability in Android. It is not know whether in the future it will detect more 0-day exploit variants in Android or not. But at present it is doing an excellent job of warning serialization vulnerability affected users.
You can get the Avira Vulnerability Checker app for Android from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.avira.oneclasstorulethemall.