Over the weekend, some Android customers with Microsoft Teams put in started reporting that they weren’t capable of name 911 except they had been signed into the app’s newest replace. It’s a reasonably grisly software program bug, to make sure, and one which’s fortunately been rectified because of a new patch that Microsoft issued to its newest Teams replace. But Google gained’t be rolling out an Android replace till January 4, leaving some customers nervous that one other app would possibly inadvertently find yourself exploiting that very same bug.

Thankfully, a developer has come out with a software that’s designed to detect doubtlessly weak Android apps earlier than these exploits occur. The PhoneAccountDetector tool was constructed to determine apps with the identical weaknesses that had been present in Microsoft Teams earlier than the patch. While these apps seemingly aren’t stopping customers from making emergency calls proper now (and won’t ever trigger that subject), this check-up can tip customers off concerning the weak apps on their system earlier than issues get out of hand.

In a nutshell, the bug that affected Microsoft Teams may very well be traced again to the app’s calling capabilities: when an app has the flexibility to make a cellphone name, it pings a selected endpoint—PhoneAccount—with a purpose to full that job. If an Android app’s inside code creates too many duplicates of that exact endpoint, the best way Microsoft Teams’ did, pre-patch, it triggers the bug that blocks these emergency calls.

The precise technical breakdown is way more complicated, however TLDR: an app shouldn’t want multiple PhoneAccount endpoint; when you’ve got too many, you danger your system defaulting to routing all calls—even emergency calls!—by means of that exact app.

Enter this new software, fittingly known as “PhoneAccount Abuse Detector.” As the title suggests, this program sifts by means of the apps in your Android cellphone to search out any apps that is perhaps creating too many duplicate PhoneAccount endpoints by mistake. If there are no apps discovered abusing that exact endpoint, nice! But if the Abuse Detector finds a pesky app pinging these specific endpoints greater than as soon as, the developer who created the software suggests you would possibly wish to both disable or uninstall the app solely to stop them from doubtlessly interfering with emergency calls. You additionally would possibly wish to let the app’s developer know that they should replace their shit.

While Android’s upcoming January replace ought to render this bug moot, this software is a helpful technique to investigate cross-check the apps in your cellphone earlier than that repair occurs. And it’s straightforward to obtain! Just go to this system’s GitHub page, obtain the Android software package deal (APK), set up it in your cellphone, and run it.