MediaTek Audio DSP Vulnerability: How a Nothing Phone Could Have Been Hacked (Except It Wasn't)

MediaTek Audio DSP Vulnerability: How a Nothing Phone Could Have Been Hacked (Except It Wasn't) A security researcher at Check Point Software found a way to turn MediaTek's audio chip into a silent eavesdropping device. The MediaTek audio DSP vulnerability affected roughly 37% of the world's smartphones. Any malicious Android app could have exploited it to listen to your conversations without your knowledge. That includes phones from Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme, Vivo, and yes, devices running MediaTek Dimensity chips like the Nothing Phone (2a). Except nobody got hacked. Not a single user. Here's the story of how one of the scariest mobile security flaws in recent memory was found, reported, and patched before it ever became a real-world threat. What Is the MediaTek Audio DSP Vulnerability? In November 2021, Slava Makkaveev, Security Researcher at Check Point Software, published a detailed technical writeup that lit up the Android security community. His team had reverse-engineered the firmwa