# Auth Bypass in Google Assistant

Google Assistant answered location-history queries like 'What restaurants have I visited?' on a locked Android and a Personal-Results-disabled Google Home, leaking the victim's visited places.

- Payout: $1,337
- Severity: medium
- Program: Google
- Credited: David Schütz
- Disclosed: 2022-02-06
- Write-up quality: 6/10
- Original: https://feed.bugs.xdavidhu.me/bugs/0012
- Library page: https://bugbountylibrary.com/r/blog%3Afeed-bugs-xdavidhu-me-bugs-0012
- Tags: domain:iot domain:mobile impact:data-leak impact:pii-leak kind:bounty platform:blog sev:medium technique:recon vuln:access-control vuln:info-disclosure

**Target:** Google Assistant voice queries on locked Android and Google Home/Nest devices
**Root cause:** Location-history Assistant add-ons do not set the 'personal' flag, so lock-screen and non-personal-results devices answer them without requiring unlock or permission.
**Steps:**
1. Set up Android with Assistant on an account with saved places in location history
2. Lock the device
3. Trigger Assistant on the lock screen
4. Ask `What [PLACE_TYPE] have I visited?` (places/restaurants/shops)
5. Assistant replies 'Here are the most recent ones:' and lists visited places with 'You visited yesterday' style timestamps
6. Alternatively say `Burger King`; the place card exposes 'You visited yesterday'
7. Same works on a Google Home Mini with Personal Results disabled
**How found:** Researcher noticed that while other personal queries demanded unlock, location-history queries answered freely on a locked phone and on a Home with personal results disabled, suggesting a missing personal flag server-side.
**Exploitation:** Attacker with physical access to an unattended locked phone (or a Home device with personal results off) issues repeated Assistant queries to map out the victim's location history without credentials.
**Escalation:** Repeated queries across place types reconstruct a broader location history; also worked on Nest Audio after the phone fix, prompting a second bounty.
**Insight:** Enumerate every Assistant 'add-on'/action and test each against a locked screen and a personal-results-disabled Home; privacy-sensitive data types (location, contacts) may lack the personal flag that generic queries enforce.