Privacy-Focused Blackphone Hacked in Minutes

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It’s been pitched as the most secure smartphone available. But the Blackphone’s security features crumbled at the hands of hackers.

The so called ultra secure NSA-Proof Blackphone titled as the “world’s first Smartphone which places privacy and control directly in the hands of its users,” has been rooted within 5 minutes at the BlackHat security conference in Las Vegas last weekend

Blackphone, a joint venture between encrypted communications firm Silent Circle and Spanish Smartphone maker Geeksphone, has a fully customized version of Android known as PrivatOS and pre-installed with lots of privacy-enabled applications, which claims to offer its users a high-end security at consumer level.

A security researcher with twitter handle @TeamAndIRC took only 5 minutes to achieve root access on the Blackphone without having the need to unlock the device’ bootloader. The hacker even mocked Blackphone’s team by saying that “It is apparent no one ran CTS [compatibility test suite] on this device.”

Blackphone makers have now patched one exploit that made the hack possible, while the other, in fairness, requires consent from the device owner before it can be harnessed. But it’s still not the best endorsement of what’s supposed to be the smartphone’s key feature.