More security warnings have been issued by the Indian government this week, and this time it is for those people who use Samsung Galaxy phones. The security alert via the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) talks about multiple vulnerabilities that affects millions of Samsung Galaxy phones, both old and new models. The security alert has been issued on December 13 and the concern has been rated as high risk, so it is paramount that existing Samsung users update their phone’s OS or firmware right away.
Samsung Phones High Security Risk: All Details
The security agency points out the issue has come about because of improper access control in Knox features, integer overflow flaw in facial recognition software, authorisation issues with the AR Emoji app, incorrect handling of errors in Knox security software. In addition to these, there could be multiple memory corruption vulnerabilities in various system components and incorrect data size verification in the softsimd library.
These issues have affected software versions Android 11, 12, 13 and 14 running on myriad Samsung Galaxy phones available in the market. When you consider the number of phones running on these Android versions, the issue is definitely a concern on a large scale.
So, what happens if these issues are exploited? The security note then explains the possible issues if the attacker is able to bypass these vulnerabilities. The agency says these issues, “may allow an attacker to trigger heap overflow and stack-based buffer overflow, access device SIM PIN, send broadcast with elevated privilege, read sandbox data of AR Emoji, bypass Knox Guard lock via changing system time, access arbitrary files, gain access to sensitive information, execute arbitrary code and compromise the targeted system."
Samsung Galaxy Phones Security Issue: How To Protect
Samsung has already released a software patch to fix these issues, and anybody using a Samsung phone with Android 11 version or higher should head over to check for the update right away. Here’s how you can check on your phone:
– Go to Settings on Samsung Galaxy phone
– Scroll down to software update
– Tap on Update to check for new version
– Install the new update and restart the phone
In case, you haven’t got any update then you should be extra careful about opening links or files from unknown sources. Also, make sure to download apps from reliable app stores and don’t sideload apps till the security issue is fixed on your device.
