{
  "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1",
  "title": "Android GhostMap: installing a crafted app can trap a phone in a crash loop, and Google won't ship a security fix · updates",
  "home_page_url": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched",
  "feed_url": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched/feed.json",
  "description": "Bitdefender Labs disclosed GhostMap, an unpatched Android flaw in how the OS reads ZIP entries inside an APK. libziparchive only checks an entry's declared uncompressed size when the entry is marked stored, while libandroidfw maps any entry that is not marked deflated at that declared size. An entry with a third compression-method value passes both, so Android maps far more memory than the file has, and the first read past the real end of the file kills the reading process with a SIGBUS. If the malformed file is a resource that system_server reads, installing the app (no permissions, no code, never opened) leaves the phone in a boot crash loop that continues in safe mode; recovery takes a factory reset, or ADB only if USB debugging was already on. The same trick can crash the installer, the launcher and Settings screens used to uninstall an app, or security scanners. Bitdefender reproduced it on a Pixel 10 running Android 17 with the August 5, 2026 patch and says Android 10 and later are affected. Google closed the first report as Won't Fix (Not Reproducible) and called the second, with a working PoC, outside the scope of a security fix, passing it to a feature team. There is no CVE, and Bitdefender has not seen it used in the wild; the investigation began with a packed banking dropper that only crashed the installer.",
  "language": "en",
  "_pwn": {
    "slug": "android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched",
    "severity": "medium",
    "status": "live",
    "patchStatus": "unpatched",
    "rss": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched/feed.xml",
    "llms": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched/llms.txt",
    "json": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched.json"
  },
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched#2026-11-05-4d8d62fe",
      "url": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched#2026-11-05-4d8d62fe",
      "title": "Android GhostMap: installing a crafted app can trap a phone in a crash loop, and Google won't ship a security fix: Bitdefender publishes the GhostMap research; no fix or CVE exists and no in-the-wild use has been seen.",
      "content_text": "Android GhostMap: installing a crafted app can trap a phone in a crash loop, and Google won't ship a security fix: Bitdefender publishes the GhostMap research; no fix or CVE exists and no in-the-wild use has been seen.\n\nSource: https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/ghostmap-android",
      "date_published": "2026-11-05T00:00:00.000Z",
      "external_url": "https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/ghostmap-android",
      "tags": [
        "medium"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched#2026-08-25-a91546f0",
      "url": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched#2026-08-25-a91546f0",
      "title": "Android GhostMap: installing a crafted app can trap a phone in a crash loop, and Google won't ship a security fix: A second report with a working PoC of the persistent system_server crash loop is called outside the scope of a security fix and passed to a feature team for a possible future version.",
      "content_text": "Android GhostMap: installing a crafted app can trap a phone in a crash loop, and Google won't ship a security fix: A second report with a working PoC of the persistent system_server crash loop is called outside the scope of a security fix and passed to a feature team for a possible future version.\n\nSource: https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/ghostmap-android",
      "date_published": "2026-08-25T00:00:00.000Z",
      "external_url": "https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/ghostmap-android",
      "tags": [
        "medium"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched#2026-08-20-8feac0f7",
      "url": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched#2026-08-20-8feac0f7",
      "title": "Android GhostMap: installing a crafted app can trap a phone in a crash loop, and Google won't ship a security fix: Bitdefender reports the installer and parser crashes to Google's Android and Devices VRP; Google closes it as Won't Fix (Not Reproducible).",
      "content_text": "Android GhostMap: installing a crafted app can trap a phone in a crash loop, and Google won't ship a security fix: Bitdefender reports the installer and parser crashes to Google's Android and Devices VRP; Google closes it as Won't Fix (Not Reproducible).\n\nSource: https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/ghostmap-android",
      "date_published": "2026-08-20T00:00:00.000Z",
      "external_url": "https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/ghostmap-android",
      "tags": [
        "medium"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched#2026-08-12-371a7a3c",
      "url": "https://pwn.watch/i/android-ghostmap-apk-zip-crash-loop-unpatched#2026-08-12-371a7a3c",
      "title": "Android GhostMap: installing a crafted app can trap a phone in a crash loop, and Google won't ship a security fix: A packed banking dropper collected in the wild crashes Bitdefender's analysis emulators during install, and the team traces it to Android's handling of ZIP compression methods.",
      "content_text": "Android GhostMap: installing a crafted app can trap a phone in a crash loop, and Google won't ship a security fix: A packed banking dropper collected in the wild crashes Bitdefender's analysis emulators during install, and the team traces it to Android's handling of ZIP compression methods.\n\nSource: https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/ghostmap-android",
      "date_published": "2026-08-12T00:00:00.000Z",
      "external_url": "https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/ghostmap-android",
      "tags": [
        "medium"
      ]
    }
  ]
}