A manipulated notification via WhatsApp, Slack, SMS, Signal, Instagram, or Messenger could hijack Google Gemini on Android devices and force it to execute arbitrary actions without requiring a malicious app to be installed on the phone.
Security researchers have identified a vulnerability in Google Gemini in which the voice assistant could interpret manipulated notifications as legitimate commands. A single poisoned notification from established messaging apps or SMS was sufficient to take control of the assistant.
Such attacks would have enabled the following scenarios: opening connected smart home devices (such as windows and doors), composing messages under false pretenses (such as spoofed messages from a manager), automatically initiating Zoom calls, or silently manipulating the assistant’s long-term memory function. The attack required neither a kernel vulnerability nor a malware app installed with administrator privileges.
The vulnerability lay in the fact that Gemini insufficiently validated notifications and did not adequately treat them as external, potentially hostile input. The research findings were made available to Google and have apparently been addressed.
Manipulated notifications from chat apps could hijack Google Gemini on Android without installing a malware app and compel it to perform harmful actions.
Source: thehackernews.com · Published June 3, 2026
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