Amazon’s Prime Exclusive program is a great way to score solid, affordable Android smartphones at a discounted rate, all for putting up with some lockscreen ads. However, it seems there may be a problem with the company’s software on certain models.
Update: It turns out that this user actually stumbled on a different problem. Instead of a pretty serious security flaw, this problem is simple Google’s on-body detection feature which keeps your phone unlocked. Generally, you have to manually turn this feature on, but it seems on this device it may be turned on by default, which isn’t good.
https://twitter.com/jaraszski/status/956635671753576450
The Prime Exclusive program hosts a lot of different smartphone models, and one of those is the Moto G5 Plus from Motorola. As first spotted by Android Police, the software changes made to the lockscreen of this device have compromised its security.
Reports from several users show that simply tapping the ad shown on the phone’s lockscreen can fully dismiss the security, giving anyone full access to the device. A brief video shows this in action, with the phone quickly unlocking when the ad is tapped and doesn’t ask for further information when the homescreen and settings app is opened.
This doesn’t affect users of this device across the board, with the problem seemingly stemming from Moto Display. Apparently, that functionality is causing the device to stay unlocked for around 30 seconds (even if the power button is pressed) to where this security flaw can be taken advantage of.
It’s unclear if any other Prime Exclusive phones are affected, so if you have one, be sure to give it a shot and let us know in the comments. Hopefully a patch for any affected devices will be made available soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKl9RNwKeUM
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