A vulnerability has been discovered in the secure environment of several Galaxy S phones. It concerns all flagships from the Galaxy S8 to the Galaxy S21 from last year. It was possible for hackers to gain access to sensitive information, but Samsung has closed the leak with a patch.
Samsung Galaxy S security issue
You’d expect Samsung flagships to be about the safest phones you can find. They receive regular security updates and the latest devices come with a security chip that houses passwords and personal information.
Still, researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered that the secure environment is a serious problem on Galaxy S devices. It is more specifically about: the Galaxy S8, S9, S10, S20 and S21. All of these devices work with Arm’s TrustZone Operating System (TZOS) which stores all sensitive information and is shielded from Android. In theory, that makes for excellent security features, but in practice, the cryptography was not done properly.
Describe researchers from Tel Aviv in this report how they could bypass the security and access the encrypted data. For hackers with the right knowledge, it was in principle also possible to bypass TZOS on Galaxy S devices. According to Sammobile, the vulnerability was found in more than 100 million Samsung phones.
Problem solved, how do you prevent this?
The good news is that Samsung has patched this vulnerability with security patches that were rolled out between August 2021 and October 2021. So if your phone is behind on updates, it’s a good idea to update the software as soon as possible. .
The security researchers also make a plea to standardize the security of smartphones, because according to them this can prevent mistakes with the implementation of a secure environment. It is known that various smartphone manufacturers and chip makers are working on such a standard for security chips, or ‘secure elements’. To be clear, the new Galaxy S22 has not been affected by the leak.
What do you think of this news? Do you understand or do you find it rather disappointing that this vulnerability has occurred in the Galaxy S series? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of this article.
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– Thanks for information from Androidworld. Source