Samsung Galaxy S III bug lets anyone bypass password-protected lockscreen

[email protected] (Anupam Saxena)
March 8, 2013

Samsung_Galaxy_S_III

A user has discovered a security flaw in the Samsung Galaxy S III that allows anyone to bypass the lock screen of the phone by following a few simple steps.

Sean McMillan has posted a method to access the lock screen of the Galaxy S II on a mailing list. According to him the bug can be reproduced by following these steps:

1) On the code entry screen (of the lock screen) press Emergency Call

2) Then press Emergency Contacts

3) Press the Home button once

4) Just after pressing the Home button, press the power button quickly

5) If successful, pressing the power button again will bring you to the S3's home screen

McMillan mentions that it might take a few attempts to get the hack working and that sometimes the method works in one go while at others, it can take more than 20 attempts. He also adds that the method seems to work better when the mobile has auto rotation turned on. McMillan claims to have tested the method on three Galaxy S III devices.

We tried unlocking the screen of a Samsung Galaxy S III(GT-I9300 running Android 4.1.2) using the same method but weren't successful.

However, ZDNET says they were able to replicate the hack after a few attempts. The site states that the timing to replicate the issue is very small and that it is difficult to replicate it in the first attempt. But after bypassing the screen once, the bug stays on the device even when the phone's screen is turned back off and the phone stops asking the user for their PIN, password or pattern.

Just a few days back, another user, Terence Eden, had discovered a security flaw in the Samsung Galaxy Note II that allowed anyone to bypass the lock screen and take a look at the home screen app icons by following similar steps. But the hack didn't allow the hacker to use any of the apps.

Last month, a similar vulnerability was discovered in Apple iOS 6.1, allowing users to bypass the lock screen, following which Apple had acknowledged the issue and promised a fix.

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Agencies
March 3,2020

Facebook on Monday launched a new consumer marketing campaign in India titled 'More Together'. India is the first country in the Asia Pacific region where such a campaign is being rolled out.

It is also the first time that Facebook is rolling out a 'high decibel campaign of this stature in India', the company said in a statement.

It is also the first time that Facebook is rolling out a 'high decibel campaign of this stature in India', the company said in a statement.

"India is at the heart of Facebook and one of our focus areas this year is to tell the exciting story of a service that is deeply embedded in the fabric of India," said Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India.

The campaign would have multiple campaigns over the next few weeks in eight languages and the one will be set in the context of Holi.

Facebook in 2019 introduced a new company logo to further distinguish the company from the Facebook app.

The company recently announced the appointment of Avinash Pant as the Marketing Director for India operations, to drive the consumer marketing efforts across the family of apps.

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News Network
February 21,2020

London, Feb 21: Scientists have discovered a new species of land snail, and have named it Craspedotropis Greta Thunberg in honour of the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg for her efforts to raise awareness about climate change.

According to the study, published in the Biodiversity Data Journal, the newly discovered species belongs to the so-called caenogastropods -- a group of land snails known to be sensitive to drought, temperature extremes, and forest degradation.

The scientists, including evolutionary ecologist Menno Schilthuizen from Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands, said the snails were found very close to the research field station at Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre in Brunei.

They added that the snails were discovered at the foot of a steep hill-slope, next to a river bank, foraging at night on the green leaves of understorey plants.

The effort aided by amateur scientist J.P. Lim, who found the first individual of the snail said, "Naming this snail after Greta Thunberg is our way of acknowledging that her generation will be responsible for fixing problems that they did not create."

"And it's a promise that people from all generations will join her to help," Lim said.

The researchers said they approached Thunberg who said that she would be "delighted" to have this species named after her.

The study work including, fieldwork, morphological study, and classification of identified specimen was carried out in a field centre with basic equipment and no internet access, the scientists said.

According to the study, the work was done by untrained ‘citizen scientists’ guided by experts, on a 10-day taxon expedition.

"While we are aware that this way of working has its limitations in terms of the quality of the output (for example, we were unable to perform dissections or to do extensive literature searches), the benefits include rapid species discovery and on-site processing of materials," the researchers wrote in the study.

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News Network
May 6,2020

Hyderabad, May 6: Away from city lights, two hours before Sunrise, people in India and across the world can witness Annual Meteor Shower called Eta Aquarids till May 28.

Observed since time immemorial, Meteor shower are commonly known as shooting stars which are nothing but dust flakes of comet/asteroid entering earth atmosphere.

This Annual Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower peaked on Wednesday at 02.30 am on Wednesday whereas presence of Full Moon was an obstacle outshining bright streaks of lights of this meteor shower zipping across the South Eastern sky.

As this meteor shower is active till May 28, people can still watch this celestial spectacle in early morning every day, Planetary Society of India (PSI) Director N Sri Raghunandan Kumar interacting with UNI said.

As per International Meteor Organization (IMO), 50 meteors per hour are expected to be seen on day of peak today. And this number would vary as days pass on till May 28 while earth passes through dust cloud of comet debris in its orbit.

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