John Gordon, a researcher from the University of Texas, has demonstrated how to hack the lockscreen password on a Google Nexus smartphone.

Smartphones using the latest version of Android Lollipop can be unlocked with a simple hack, a security briefing has claimed. It is done by adding a large number of characters in the emergency call window and then copying it to the Android clipboard. The huge amount of characters causes the lock screen of your device to crash and this enables hackers to obtain complete control over your device to steal your data.

These devices will require a software update to fix the bug, but users will have to rely on the manufacturer of the smartphone and their mobile phone operator to roll out the update, rather than Google directly. Next, swipe opens the camera of the device and accesses the options menu.

The attack only works if the gadget has a lock-screen password set, the researchers note: the attack doesn’t work against the pattern or PIN setups. Keep pasting your copied characters into the password prompt for at least 7 times, tap to confirm and wait for 10 minutes.

In other words, you can just paste in a very long string of random characters into the password field, (in the demonstration he uses stars), causing the phone to crash and then unlock.

According to the study, hackers would first have to swipe left of the handset lock screen to open the camera app and access the “Settings” page from the notification panel.

The vulnerability was discovered by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and affects devices running Android Lollipop 5.0 and above.

The USA search giant described the glitch as a “moderate” severity issue. However, as most people know, it can take months or years for updates to hit the masses, and some devices never receive security patches.

Mr. Gordon reported the bug to Google and received a $500 reward for his trouble.