New Kernel-Level Vulnerability Found In Many Samsung Devices

Kernel level vulnerabilities are rare, yet they can let a hacker wreak havoc unto your device by stealing your important data. A developer at the XDA-developers forum has now found a new kernel vulnerability which exists in multiple Samsung devices.


Samsung Exynos

The vulnerability is quite serious in that it can let a hacker access the RAM on your Samsung device and then manipulate it. The frightening revelation was made by a developer who goes by the nick of ‘alephzain.’ According to him, the physical memory of many Samsung devices gives read-and-write access to all users.

This is a significant problem because any malicious app from Google Play Store can potentially dump the RAM’s content into the kernel of the device. This would create a security lapse through which, a hacker can then nick away data from a device or modify the device’s data so that it is unable to detect when a malicious app manipulates the data in the background.

For now, alephzain says, he has been able to determine that the vulnerability exists on such Samsung devices which make use of the Exynos 4210 and Exynos 4412 chips. These devices include:

  • Samsung Galaxy S II
  • Samsung Galaxy S III
  • Samsung Galaxy Note
  • Samsung Galaxy Note II
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus

According to the admins of the forum, Samsung developers have been notified of the vulnerability. It is being hoped that Samsung will patch up this critical security vulnerability before hackers are able to manipulate it to their nefarious ends.

Source: XDA

Courtesy: ZDnet

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Salman

Salman Latif is a software engineer with a specific interest in social media, big data and real-world solutions using the two.Other than that, he is a bit of a gypsy. He also writes in his own blog. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter .

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