LOS ANGELES — Google is updating its Android operating system to fix an issue that is thought to have left millions of smartphones and tablets vulnerable to personal-data leaks.
“We recently started rolling out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third-party access to data available in calendar and contacts,” a Google spokesman said in a statement. “This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.”
The fix is being issued for every version of Android released and began updating devices Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the software update who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the person’s relationship with Google.
The Mountain View, Calif., tech giant hasn’t found any instances of hackers taking advantage of the flaw to steal a user’s personal data, the person said, adding that Google hadn’t known of the potential for such an exploitation until Germany’s University of Ulm issued a report on the security hole.
“The implications of this vulnerability reach from disclosure to loss of personal information for the Calendar data,” Ulm researchers Bastian Konings, Jens Nickels and Florian Schaub wrote in their report. “For contact information, private information of others is also affected, potentially including phone numbers, home addresses and e-mail addresses.”
The vulnerability in Android was first pointed out by Rice University professor Dan Wallach in February, and the University of Ulm probed it further.
