There is a HUGE security vulnerability in Google Wallet that effects all users regardless of if they are rooted or not. The security flaw is painfully easy to do and requires no extra software nor does it require root.

All a person who wants to access your Google Wallet has to do is go into the application settings menu and clear the data for the Google Wallet app. After doing that your Google Wallet app will be reset and will prompt for you to set a new pin the next time you open it.

The problem here is that since Google Wallet is tied to the device itself and not tied to your Google account, that once they set the new pin and log into the app, when they add the Google prepaid card it will add the card that is tied to that device. In other words, they would be able to add your card and have full access to your funds.

This vulnerability is particularly bad as it does not require root or an other software in order to gain access to your Google Wallet. All a person needs to be able to do this is access to your phone and within 1-2 minutes they will have complete access to your Google Wallet account.

It seems like there might be a bug in relation to Google Wallet that can prevent users from using their smartphone to make purchases. Apparently, an HTC EVO 4G LTE user was having problems with HTC Sense crashing. The phone's owner was told to factory reset the unit and he did. But that was actually the beginning of the problem he had with Google Wallet. While the factory reset did resolve the force closing of HTC Sense, it also permanently disabled Google Wallet without even giving one bit of warning.

The owner of the device called Google and the answer he received was extremely unsatisfying as he was told that he needed to have been covered by a warranty and that he could get the phone repaired as long as he was willing to pay for it. NFC enabled models have a little mechanism inside the NFC component on the phone called the "secure element". If this "secure element" is tampered with, or even in the case of a factory reset, those attempting to pay using Google Wallet will receive a "secure element error" message. And just to be clear, this issue is not limited to the HTC EVO 4G LTE. Any NFC enabled device using Gogle Wallet will find the feature disabled with a factory reset, even the Google Nexus S 4G and the Samsung GALAXY Nexus.

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