We specify immediately that at the moment the security situation mentioned in the title seems to be linked only to the devices of Indian users who in the last hours have literally invaded the various social networks with photos and videos that showed their terminals restarting randomly. However, there is no commonality of models, as both Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones are involved and POCO, showing an initial error message on the screen that generates a continuous restart until the device discharges completely.
The very high amount of complaints appeared on social networks has set in motion the machine of MIUI developers who have discovered that the bug is caused by an application of the mobile phone operator, or Airtel Thanks, which conflicts with the "Find my device ".
Hey Xiaomi,
What is this?
device prompts this "Find Device closed unexpectedly" and reboots for several times.@ XiaomiIndia @manukumarjain @MyIndiaSupport @ Xiaomi @RedmiIndia pic.twitter.com/4YrtdCdfYx- Sujith_Kumar_99 (@ sujith_kumar_99) November 13, 2020
Commenting on the matter, Harmeen Mehta, Airtel's digital head, confirmed that the operator's app is the cause of the problem and advised users to install the latest version of the app, but all who have now been plagued by the bugs will have to hope for Xiaomi's salvation. Therefore, the Chinese manufacturer confirmed in a note that is already working to fix the problem , but the update including the fix will not be released until next week:
Xiaomi and Redmi devices have been found to show an error causing the device to restart unwanted. It has been observed that some lines of code behave abnormally when updating the application. While we are working to fix the issue with the app developer and release a permanent update early next week, we have been putting in place temporary containment measures for the past 36 hours. This fix may require consumers to bring their devices to a service center. At Mi India, the customer experience is the top priority and we apologize for the inconvenience caused to them.
Still security problems for Xiaomi, Redmi and smartphones POCO: bootloop and Control Center the unfortunate protagonists
The other problem we want to talk to you about actually has not created victims at the moment, but safety and prudence in the digital field and therefore on smartphones is never too much. In particular, the most security-conscious users have pointed out that in MIUI 12, Xiaomi does not allow you to hide the control center in the system interface losck screen.
On the other hand, a lock screen should really serve to not let anyone access the data but also the settings of our phone, without our consent. So if on the one hand, at the moment there has not yet been any problem related to privacy, the fact of being able to access the control panel in MIUI 12 despite the lockscreen, could give rise to a problem related to security in terms of settings.
With the options available in the Control Center, the attacker could put your Xiaomi smartphone in airplane mode to prevent you from calling, texting, or using the mobile network to locate it. In the same way, it might also disable GPS location to further complicate your chances of recovering the device. All this without counting the fact that you could not wipe your mobile data remotely, a real headache.
Finally, albeit less important, the person who stole your smartphone could also modify the quick toggles available in the panel. In short, a very important security problem on balance that could fortunately soon be solved with future updates of MIUI 12. In fact, the latest updates of the Chinese MIUI 12 ROM no longer present this problem, having solved it with the introduction of an activation option and deactivation in the settings, which allows you to choose whether to view the MIUI Control Center from the lock screen or not.
Mui 12. Redmi note 9 pro. In the security app, if you choose avg as antivirus, the phone is still reset to avast when you exit the app. Furthermore, with avast set, it is not possible to download updates with a data connection but only with wifi. Is it a bug?
good! we are waiting for the fix of the new control center, cmq, I don't like the new one, for now I'm using the old one, it is more "familiar" to me which, among other things, on the lock screen, you can disable it, so " does not go down ”😉