The ‘Parental Control – Kids Place’ app for Android developed by Kiddowares has been found to have multiple vulnerabilities, exposing protected devices to potential attacks. These flaws allow attackers to upload arbitrary files, steal user credentials, and enable children to bypass parental restrictions without detection.
The app, boasting 5 million downloads on Google Play, offers various parental control features such as monitoring, geolocation, internet access restrictions, screen time management, and more.
SEC Consult researchers identified five security issues in versions 3.8.49 and older of the Kids Place app. These vulnerabilities include the insecure storage of user passwords using unsalted MD5 hashes, the ability to trigger cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks through the manipulation of device names, vulnerability to cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks, the potential for arbitrary file uploads to AWS S3 buckets, and a flaw that allows users to temporarily remove all usage restrictions. Exploitation of these vulnerabilities could compromise user privacy and device security.
To mitigate these risks, users are strongly advised to update to the secure version 3.8.50 or later. The flaws were discovered by SEC Consult on November 23, 2022, and subsequently reported to Kiddowares.
The vendor addressed the issues and released version 3.8.50 on February 14, 2023. App users can update to the latest version by accessing the Google Play store, navigating to the account icon, selecting ‘Manage apps & device,’ and tapping on ‘Check for updates.’ Promptly updating the app is crucial to ensure the safety and privacy of users relying on the Kids Place app for parental control functionality.
