SMS of Death

If a smartphone running Android 12 through Android 17 suddenly notifies the user that wants to enter the recovery mode and prompts them to tap “Erase Data,” you should not do so. In that case, the device has most likely received one or more invisible “SMS of Death.”

If you confirm “Erase Data,” everything will truly be gone. One way to help is to immediately turn off the device and connect it to a PC via a cable using the Android Debug Bridge (ADB). This allows you to locate and delete the invisible SMS.

Google has confirmed the issue and released a patch for Android versions 14–17. There will likely be no more patches for Android 12 and 13. The vulnerability, known as “Zero-Click Denial-of-Service,” is listed under the CVE number CVE-2026-58882. The phone falls victim to a specially crafted WAP push SMS. In the early days of Android, such invisible SMS messages were used to send configurations to devices.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Read more https://www.pcwelt.de/article/3274046/unsichtbare-sms-des-todes-laesst-android-handy-abstuerzen-kompletter-datenverlust-droht.html

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