I vaguely remember some snapdragon exploit a couple years ago that was supposed render a whole bunch of devices unlockable but as far as I can tell nothing ever came of that.
This is entirely different though. Any media that DSP can process is capable of exploiting the whole phone, so the exploit is rather easy.
“3 billion” devices with multiple vulnerabilities that sound like RCE via things like video playback with “fixing them requires a long chain of communication between many vendors, manufacturers and resellers” sounds like a total disaster to me. Many (most?) Android phones in use will never see an update!
The only way is to buy a phone without Qualcomm processors, that leaves the option of poor Exynos, or the much better Mediatek and Kirin chips.
vulnerable to hacks that can turn them into spying tools
Aah yes, gotta love muricans crying because tiktok is chinese “spyware” and should be banned, while qualcomm just makes a “oopsie woopsie” for 3 letter agencies with billion of devices around the world.
Fuck, I can’t even disable googol play services, it’s constantly running in the background
Use my Smartphone Hardening non root Guide 2.0, the few starting steps should be enough to disable Google Play Malware.