New York: Serious security flaws have been found in software used on millions of Android devices worldwide. This could give hackers complete access to a phone’s data.

Checkpoint researchers have uncovered the bugs by looking at software running on chipsets made by US firm Qualcomm the processors of which are found in about 900 million Android phones.

However, there is no evidence of the vulnerabilities currently being used in attacks by cyber thieves. Michael Shaulov, head of mobility product management at Checkpoint, said: “I’m pretty sure you will see these vulnerabilities being used in the next three to four months. It’s always a race as to who finds the bug first, whether it’s the good guys or the bad.”

According to a report by BBC, after the research, they announced a list of affected devices. The list includes... BlackBerry Priv and Dtek50 Blackphone 1 and Blackphone 2 Google Nexus 5X, Nexus 6 and Nexus 6P HTC One, HTC M9 and HTC 10 LG G4, LG G5, and LG V10 New Moto X by Motorola OnePlus One, OnePlus 2 and OnePlus 3 Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung S7 Edge Sony Xperia Z Ultra

It took six months of research to reverse engineer Qualcomm’s code revealed the problems. The flaws were found in software that handles graphics and in code that controls communication between different processes running inside a phone.

Shaulov further said that it took six months of research to reverse engineer Qualcomm’s code revealed the problems. The flaws were found in software that handles graphics and in code that controls communication between different processes running inside a phone.

Exploiting the bugs would allow an attacker to gradually be able to take more control over a device and gain access to its data. Checkpoint handed information about the bugs and proof of concept code to Qualcomm earlier this year.

In response, Qualcomm is believed to have created patches for the bugs and started to use the fixed versions in its factories. It has also distributed the patches to phone makers and operators. However, it is not clear how many of those companies have issued updates to customers’ phones. Checkpoint has created a free app called QuadRooter Scanner that can be used to check if a phone is vulnerable to any of the bugs, by looking to see if the patches for them have been downloaded and installed.

In addition, Shaulov said Android owners should only download apps from the official Google Play store to avoid falling victim to malicious programs.