Because of the loopholes in the software developed by BlackBerry, a large number of key equipment in automobiles, hospitals, and factories may be hacked; BlackBerry kept silent and kept it secret for several months.
On Tuesday, BlackBerry revealed that there is a loophole in the QNX operating system that may be exploited by hackers. QNX is a very old operating system, and it is still in use in many places today. The vulnerability is called BadAlloc, and some other companies are also affected, but they have been announced as early as May.
People familiar with the matter said that BlackBerry initially did not admit that the product was affected by BadAlloc, and later refused to make a public statement. BlackBerry used to be a well-known smartphone manufacturer, and now it mainly provides software for industrial equipment.
Some factory machinery, medical equipment, railway facilities will use BlackBerry software and even components of the International Space Station. BlackBerry licenses QNX to OEMs, just as Microsoft licenses Windows to Dell and Lenovo. BlackBerry told government workers that they do not fully know which devices the software is installed on, and many users do not know where the software comes from.
In June, BlackBerry said that about 195 million cars had QNX software installed and that it was safe and reliable.
