Samsung's bloatware carried dangerous flaws<\/p>\n
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here\u2019s how it works.<\/p>\n
Security researchers from Oversecured have given \u201cbloatware\u201d an entirely new meaning, revealing that they uncovered 176 vulnerabilities – including some rather worrying ones – in Samsung\u2019s mobile apps.<\/p>\n
For the last three years, the team analyzed Samsung\u2019s preinstalled system applications and found vulnerabilities that could cause some serious harm. Some of the bugs granted camera and microphone access, while others allowed for remote Samsung Account takeover with nothing more than a single click.<\/p>\n
Some flaws allowed for network traffic hijacking via DNS manipulation, and others granted arbitrary code execution via an image. In theory, a malicious actor could craft and send a JPEG image which, when the victim opens, copies and loads attacker-controlled native libraries from the SD card. Finally, Oversecured found path traversal vulnerabilities allowing writing arbitrary files to the file system without proper path validation.<\/p>\n
The researchers disclosed their findings to Samsung which, according to their report, fixed all of the reported issues – the full list can be found on GitHub.<\/p>\n
Most Android smartphone manufacturers preload their devices with proprietary apps – think Bixby, Samsung Free, or AR Zone. These apps – which cannot be uninstalled or removed from the devices – aren\u2019t necessary to their operations and are often not wanted by the users in the first place.<\/p>\n
This 'bloatware' is also one of the key selling propositions of Google Pixel devices, since these are considered \u201cstock Android\u201d, or bloatware-free.<\/p>\n
Out of context, these bugs are nothing extraordinary. Single-click account takeover flaws and traffic hijacking bugs pop up every now and then and get fixed rather quickly. The context here is that these are Samsung\u2019s proprietary apps that don\u2019t fall under the protection of Google\u2019s Play Protect. Users might think they\u2019re safe because they\u2019ve not downloaded apps from risky places, or enabled dangerous permissions, when in reality, they\u2019re not safe at all:<\/p>\n
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!<\/p>\n
\u201cPreinstalled system applications run with extra privileges than normal apps, cannot be removed by users, and operate outside Google Play Protect,\u201d the researchers warned. \u201cA single vulnerability affects hundreds of millions of devices globally through one vendor's distribution channel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u27a1\ufe0f Read our full guide to the best antivirus1. Best overall:Bitdefender Total Security2. Best for families:Norton 360 with LifeLock3. Best for mobile:McAfee Mobile Security<\/p>\n
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.<\/p>\n
Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he\u2019s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He\u2019s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.<\/p>\n
You must confirm your public display name before commenting<\/p>\n