Moto G5 Plus Prime Edition security flaw lets you unlock it with the tap of a lockscreen ad

The Moto G5 Plus Prime Edition appears to be plagued with a security flaw.

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Update: Motorola appears to have worked to resolve the unlock scenario seen in the video. It has been found that the same has been caused by an Android setting called Smart Lock that lets the device remain unlocked via body detection. The Smart Lock feature works is separate from the lockscreen offers and ads on Prime Exclusive phones.

 

Amazon has been offering Prime Exclusive program for quite some time. The company teamed up with several phone manufacturers so that it can sell those devices at a lower price in exchange for preloaded Amazon apps as well as advertisements on the lock screen. However, these ads on the lockscreen have resulted in a security flaw on the Moto G5 Plus that is a Prime Exclusive device.

 
Moto G5 Plus Prime Edition can be unlocked on tapping a lockscreen ad

The issue came to light be a video posted by a Twitter user showing the Prime Exclusive Moto G5 Plus being unlocked without the registered fingerprint of the owner. This happened after a lockscreen ad was opened on the device. The smartphone appears to be unlocked completely in order to open a linked webpage in the ad and pressing the home button reveals the home screen of the device.

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Initially, it was believed that this could be a user error such as auto lock settings but the same was disproven with the second video on YouTube that showed the auto lock settings. However, there have been several owners who were not able to replicate the security flaw on their Moto G5 Plus that is exclusive to Amazon Prime. It could be due to the difference in the settings.

It is claimed that the flaw will do the magic of unlocking the smartphone completely only when Moto Display is turned on. It was noted that the device will not let you back if you leave it locked for a specific length of time. In the video, it is claimed to be 30 seconds. However, it is still a security flaw.

According to a report by AndroidPolice, the folks over there tried replicating the same behavior of unlocking the smartphone completely from the lockscreen ads on an Amazon Prime Exclusive Nokia 6. But the security flaw did not work on this one tipping that it could be restricted only to the Moto G5 Plus. The report adds that Amazon is yet to comment regarding this security flaw and that the matter deserves investigation as it is related to the users' privacy.

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