A vulnerability has been discovered in Android operating systems v 5.0 through v 5.1.1 “LMY48M”, the security issue allows an attacker to bypass the lock screen and gain full access to a locked device. Discovered by researchers at the University of Texas the issue got reported, and thankfully the Android security team released an update a few months ago in June which fixes the problem.

Android devices on older builds ( v 5.0 through v 5.1.1) of the operating-system are still vulnerable to the attack as shown in the "step by step" demonstration video as shared below. The attack involves entering a large string of characters into the password field which is used to crash the lock-screen in order to gain unrestricted access to the device bypassing the password security.

I switched from an Apple iPhone to Xiaomi Mi4 since past 4 months and I must say it is an excellent smartphone. Apart from power-packed hardware the Google Android 4.4 based MIUI6 ROM on the software front has been a big reason the phone is a huge success and is often compared to the likes of Apple iPhone 6 despite being cheaper almost three times to it. The company offers two versions of their official MIUI ROM - the "Stable Version" which comes pre-installed with Google services like "Google Play Store" and the "Development Version" which gets frequent updates, does not have Google services pre-installed, is tuned towards Chinese app-ecosystem but has the added advantage of being pre-rooted.

While I was enjoying my experience with the developer version of the ROM, last update MIUI6 v 5.2.13 broke Google services and re-installing using the usual "Google Installer" from the MIUI Appstore did not worked. This is when I decided to switch to the Stable version of the ROM and had to manually root my phone as shared below unlike the development version which comes pre-rooted.

Jailbreaking android and gaining escalated SuperUser rights allows users to tweak and hack their android devices beyond manufacture imposed limitations, here is an easy to follow step-by-step guide on rooting your Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 device running Google Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread.

Similar to iOS jailbreak you can hack your stock android install to get root user privilege on the device granting you complete control over it. This process known as "rooting" allows users to overcome limitations, add functionality and customize each and every aspect of the operating-system. Compared to iOS jailbreaking, rooting android is a bit easy and can be achieved either by using a desktop application or an application downloaded from market/SD card. While there is quite a fleet of different android powered devices the methods shared below should work on most cases.

If you want to go the "On device" method z4root is the answer, you simply grab the application from "android market" (or download apk to your device storage from computer) and launch it following on-screen instructions.