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Hackers have cracked controls in the Google Android operating system, used on T-Mobile's G1 phone.

The G1 is the first Android-based phone available through T-Mobile . It went on sale in late October.

Now, according to IDG news service, hackers have discovered a way to read data on parts of the phone that are normally out of bounds and could be used to install new programs, or even a new operating system.

Currently, programs for the open-source Android operating system must be written in Java, rather than other popular programming languages such as C or C++, the report says.

Apparently details of how to gain so-called superuser 'root' access to the phone have been posted to an Android development forum. Step-by-step instructions have also been published online.

Developers were able to hack the phone thanks to a bug in the Android operating system, Google acknowledged. It said it's working on a fix.

The iPhone was also unlocked after its launch in June 2007, through a process known as 'jailbreaking,' IDG points out.