Epic Calls Google ‘Irresponsible’ For Disclosing Serious Security Flaw In Fortnite

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has called Google "irresponsible" for disclosing a security bug in Fortnite's installer for Android.

Last week Friday, Google revealed a vulnerability in Fortnites installer for Android. The bug in the installer could be exploited by hackers to secretly install malware onto users phone and the public revelation of this flaw has angered Fortnite's CEO who is accusing Google of trying to "score cheap PR points" by making it known public.

Epic Games decided to skip the Google Play Store to distribute Fortnite so as to avoid paying Google's 30% in-game fee. This move by Epic Games pose a risk to Android users as they would be forced to enable their device to accept apps from "Unknown Source."


The bug report by Google said the installer had a vulnerability that other apps could exploit to install anything they wanted. Epic Games, however, was quick to create a patch of which after confirming, Google made it public via the public issue tracker.

The disclosure, however, provoked Sweeney who took to Twitter to protest the way Google handled the situation.

Android is an open platform. We released software for it. When Google identified a security flaw, we worked around the clock (literally) to fix it and release an update.

The only irresponsible thing here is Google’s rapid public release of technical details.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) August 25, 2018

Sweeney's went on to say that Google did not give the patch enough time to spread but instead the tech company made it public in order to "score cheap PR points."

We asked Google to hold the disclosure until the update was more widely installed. They refused, creating an unnecessary risk for Android users in order to score cheap PR points.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) August 25, 2018

It's quite obvious that Google is upset that not having Fortnite on the Play Store will deprive it of the 30% cut of the in-app purchases. However, Google is not wrong in making the flaw known public.

Android is an open source and so it won't be normal for Google to hold bug reports even after a patch has been made available. Fortnite should know that thats how it works.... they can't just endanger Android users and expect Google to be mute. They should have considered this before skipping the Play Store.