Amazon fixes flaw on Kindle that could allow hackers to steal billing data

Amazon Kindle remains a popular choice for e-book readers, but its popularity also opens doors to security risks. That’s exactly what security research firm Check Point has demonstrated in its latest report that Kindle e-readers can be vulnerable to hacking via free e-books. The company says that through a “self-publishing” service, a malicious book could be published and made available for free on e-libraries, including the Kindle Store. These books can often be accessed directly from the hacker to the end users. Services from Amazon. If installed successfully, malware-laden e-books can expose information, billing accounts, etc. Even stolen email IDs can pave the way for sophisticated phishing attacks.

Check Point further claims that anti-viruses do not have signatures for e-books, which essentially means that these applications cannot detect malware. The company said it successfully uploaded malware to uncover the vulnerability. A release stated that To light up Exploits can be an easy operation for hackers to target specific audiences. This was made possible by targeting popular books in a particular region. “To use a random example, if a threat actor wanted to target Romanian citizens, they would only need to publish some free and popular e-books in the Romanian language.” Speaking more on the potential for breaches, the company notes that understanding the architecture of the Kindle, which uses Linux code at its core, helped them successfully hack their own e-readers.