Hacker News Reader

Comment by alfiedotwtf | Hacker News Reader

> Based on our investigation we have been able to reproduce the issue under a limited set of circumstances. We believe the issue is only present on a small number of devices with the Microsoft Teams app installed when the user is not logged in, and we are currently only aware of one user report related to the occurrence of this bug. We determined that the issue was being caused by unintended interaction between the Microsoft Teams app and the underlying Android operating system. Because this issue impacts emergency calling, both Google and Microsoft are heavily prioritizing the issue, and we expect a Microsoft Teams app update to be rolled out soon

Let me zoom in...

> we expect a Microsoft Teams app update to be rolled out soon

Seems like a Microsoft issue to me.

View on HN

It's a Google issue no matter what. No matter what Microsoft did in their Teams app, the fact that it was (and still is!) possible is a critical flaw in Google code which Google has the duty to fix ASAP. The problem is not fixed until it is impossible for 911 calling to break even if the old Microsoft Teams app is used, and until emergency calling is certain to work even if someone else intentionally made a malicious app trying to hijack 911 in a similar manner.

I mean, that's literally a top priority without compromise - if it turns out that for some reason they can't implement third party dialing in a way that ensures proper handling of emergency calls even in the presence of buggy or even actively malicious third party apps, then an acceptable solution would be to kill all third party dialing; there is no permissible tradeoff whatsoever between features and emergency calling.

> Seems like a Microsoft issue to me.

Amazed that you managed to draw this conclusion! It doesn't matter what apps I have installed and what they do, NOTHING should prevent me from getting a 911 call out if I have battery and coverage.

> Seems like a Microsoft issue to me.

False. Microsoft is not responsible for ensuring that 911 is available - Google is, as they are the phone hardware and OS manufacturer. Teams can only use the APIs exposed to it by Android - if use of those APIs allows 911 calling to be disabled, that's a bug in Android, not Teams.

Similarly, if an application using the standard Linux kernel APIs is improperly elevated to root because of a bug in the kernel, that's the fault of the kernel, not the application. The kernel is responsible for ensuring that even misuse of its API or a buggy application doesn't violate certain constraints that the user expects to be upheld.

> Seems like a Microsoft issue to me.

This is kind of like saying if an app crashes an operating system it is the app's fault.

The app's code may have caused the crash but the fact that a modern OS would allow an app to take down the entire system is a flaw in the operating system, and the significantly more important problem to have fixed than whatever is wrong with that one specific app that highlighted the issue.

Likewise Microsoft's code may be what is causing this issue to surface, but Android should have better protection against this happening in the first place.

Consider that if the Microsoft Teams app is doing this on accident other apps could do this on purpose, and that failure lies squarely with Google/Android.

> Seems like a Microsoft issue to me.

except that any app could do this, and it just happens to be Teams that did.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com