Google warns users to take action to protect against remotely exploitable flaws in popular Android phones.
Google’s security research unit is sounding the alarm on a set of vulnerabilities it found in certain Samsung chips included in dozens of Android models, wearables and vehicles, fearing the flaws could be soon discovered and exploited.
Tests conducted by Google’s security research unit, Project Zero discovered a set of vulnerabilities in certain Samsung chips included in dozens of Android models, wearables and vehicles, fearing the flaws could be soon discovered and exploited.
According to their website, these vulnerabilities allow an attacker to "remotely compromise a phone at the baseband level with no user interaction, and require only that the attacker know the victim's phone number. With limited additional research and development, we believe that skilled attackers would be able to quickly create an operational exploit to compromise affected devices silently and remotely."
They go on to list known affected devices:
Mobile devices from Samsung, including those in the S22, M33, M13, M12, A71, A53, A33, A21s, A13, A12 and A04 series;
Mobile devices from Vivo, including those in the S16, S15, S6, X70, X60 and X30 series;
The Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 series of devices from Google; and
any vehicles that use the Exynos Auto T5123 chipset.
Since no known fix is in site and Android has yet to put out an update to repair the vulnerabilities, we recommend that users with these phones should make sure they do not have sensitive information, credit card numbers, etc stored on those devices.