Report Alleges Up To 63 Percent Of Android Apps Contain Security Vulnerabilities
Whether it’s a typo, a line of code in the wrong place, or a placeholder for testing that never got removed, developers can introduce vulnerabilities into apps that a threat actor could exploit. It seems Android developers seem to have the problem quite a bit, as new research suggested over 60% of Android apps had known security vulnerabilities in Q1 2021.
According to data presented by the Atlas VPN team and collected by the Synopsys Cybersecurity Research Center, 63% of Android apps had known vulnerabilities, with an average of 39 vulnerabilities per app. The worst offenders of this 63% were gaming and financial apps, with the apps in the “top free games” category taking 96% of the total vulnerable apps.
However, having 63% of apps with vulnerabilities is still a high amount, even though not all vulnerabilities lead to malicious activity. Thus, it is quite feasible that millions of Android users are at risk due to their downloads. Hopefully, we will also find out about Apple apps soon, as App Store developers likely have the same problems, so stay tuned to HotHardware for updates.
