If you are owners of Android devices running anything below the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, then your device could be a potential victim of the recent USSD vulnerability. In the worst case scenario, all the data in your device or SIM card can be completely wiped out through the remotely-executed USSD code exploit.
First of all, what is USSD code and what it does? USSD stands for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data and the code contains * and #. It serves the purpose of providing special functions to operators and device manufacturers such as settings reset and wiping the device.
A security researcher, named Ravi Borgaonkar has successfully demonstrated how an Android device could be wiped out simply by opening a website containing malicious HTML code which initiated a factory reset. In fact, USSD code exploit has been found with some of the Android devices which allow the malicious USSD commands to be executed remotely.
Now, you should realize how dangerous the code is. And your device has the equal chance to a potential risk of phone wipe or factory reset without your knowledge. However, you shouldn’t be too worry because you can block the malicious USSD code with the help of a free tool from Norton.
Now available on Google Play, Norton Halt is a free application that is designed to protect your Android device from the recent USSD vulnerability. It monitors for suspicious and unsafe USSD code requests that are sent remotely to your device and it blocks the execution of those USSD code that doesn’t ask for your permission.
In addition to that, Norton Halt provides advanced USSD filtering, including both string detection and special characters.
Norton Halt intercepts any USSD codes that are sent remotely to your device and warns you against the unsafe commands before they are executed.
