Asus ZenFone 5Z App Lock on settings menu easily bypassed; issue forwarded to devs, confirms ZenTalk mod

The Asus ZenFone 5Z launched back in 2018 and was priced quite competitively for what it had to offer, however, it was overshadowed by the likes of the OnePlus 6 and 6T.

It came with Android 8.0 Oreo pre-installed and got the update to Android 9 Pie and later even bagged Android 10 with the company’s ZenUI 6 skin. More on that here.

Unfortunately, the device isn’t eligible for Android 11 since the company only seeds 2 major OS updates for its devices. Having said that, it will continue getting minor patches and bug-fixing updates for some time.

And speaking of bugs, it seems that an Asus ZenFone 5Z user has spotted a bug in the App Lock function that allows users to bypass it to access the settings menu.

With App Lock, users have the option to lock any application, including the settings menu, which requires a pin or biometric authentication in order for the apps to be accessed.

This means that even if the phone is left unlocked, no one else will be able to access the locked applications.

However, with the bug, users can access the settings menu if they open the “App info” of any application and then pull down the notification panel and tap on the settings icon.

The user has also shared a video of the bug in action:

As you can see, with just a few taps the user is able to bypass the App Lock on the settings menu on the Asus ZenFone 5Z.

Fortunately, a moderator on the company’s community forums spotted the complaint from the individual and has forwarded the information to the developers.

Yeap, that’s not supposed to happen. I will forward this to our devs. Thank you! (Source)

At present, it’s unclear how long it could take for Asus to fix the settings menu App Lock bug on the ZenFone 5Z. Moreover, the bug may be affecting other models as well, however, we haven’t come across any reports.

As usual, we will continue to keep track of the situation and will post an update once the company rolls out a fix for the problem.

In the meantime, you can keep track of the Android 11 rollout from Asus by heading to our dedicated tracker.

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