Google has fixed an issue that could have revealed your phone number to
anyone - here's what you need to know

Date:
Tue, 10 Jun 2025 16:04:00 +0000

Description:
Exposing a person's phone number could result in different security and privacy risks, experts warn.

FULL STORY ======================================================================A security researcher found a way to bypass Google's anti-bot mechanism This allowed them to automate guessing the number Google fixed the flaw and
thanked the researcher

Google has fixed a flaw which was able to expose the phone number associated with any Google account, putting people at different privacy and security risks.

A security researcher with the alias brutecat uncovered a way to bypass the anti-bot protection which prevented people from spamming password reset requests on Google accounts.

This allowed them to cycle through every possible combination until they were able to get the correct phone number. Later, they were able to automate the process, resulting in the phone number being guessed in roughly 20 minutes (depending on how many digits the number has). Risks of exposed numbers

There are multiple privacy and security challenges that stem from an exposed phone number. For one, people who rely on anonymity (such as journalists, political opposition, dissidents, and similar) could be more vulnerable to targeted attacks. Also, exposing a persons phone number opens them up to SIM-swap attacks, as well as phishing and social engineering . Finally, if an attacker successfully hijacks a phone number, they could reset passwords and gain unauthorized access to linked accounts.

Luckily enough, the issue has been fixed, and so far there have been no reports of the flaw being abused in the wild.

TechCrunch was one of the publications confirming the authenticity of the flaw, after setting up a dummy account with a brand new phone number, and having it cracked soon after.

This issue has been fixed. Weve always stressed the importance of working
with the security research community through our vulnerability rewards
program and we want to thank the researcher for flagging this issue, Google spokesperson Kimberly Samra told TechCrunch.

Researcher submissions like this are one of the many ways were able to
quickly find and fix issues for the safety of our users.

Samra said that the company has seen no confirmed, direct links to exploits
at this time. You might also like Forget about eSIM, this multi-operator SIM could make swapping mobile networks as easy as ABC but it is not available for smartphones right now Take a look at our guide to the best authenticator app We've rounded up the best password managers



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/google-has-fixed-an-issue-that-could-ha ve-revealed-your-phone-number-to-anyone-heres-what-you-need-to-know


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