Scott Hart
Samsung Smart TV Security Flaws
The operating system on Samsung smart devices, Tizen, runs products like TVs, smartwatches and the Galaxy Z lineup. Samsung is (was) seeking to expand the Tizen offerings to more products and more markets. However, all may not be well the Tizen, though. As security researcher Amihai Neiderman of Equus Software mentioned to Motherboard, the Tizen OS has as many as 40 zero-day vulnerabilities still active and posing a threat to the TVs, watches and phones. These vulnerabilities allow someone to remove hack “millions” of newer devices. As of now, Samsung has not fixed these vulnerabilities.
As Motherboard quotes the researcher,
“Everything you can do wrong there, they do it. You can see that nobody with any understanding of security looked at this code or wrote it. It’s like taking an undergraduate and letting him program your software.”
When contacted, Samsung sent the researcher an automated email in response.
Samsung’s current smartphone lineup is heavily dependent on Android, so these news shouldn’t necessarily impact your opinion of their Android smartphones in particular. But Samsung’s other avenues that involve Tizen are likely to invite hackers to explore and find more of such zero-day vulnerabilities. There needs to be a higher priority on Tizen’s security if Samsung ever wants Tizen to bean OS for the internet of things.
Read more.
Samsung Smart TV Security Flaws
The operating system on Samsung smart devices, Tizen, runs products like TVs, smartwatches and the Galaxy Z lineup. Samsung is (was) seeking to expand the Tizen offerings to more products and more markets. However, all may not be well the Tizen, though. As security researcher Amihai Neiderman of Equus Software mentioned to Motherboard, the Tizen OS has as many as 40 zero-day vulnerabilities still active and posing a threat to the TVs, watches and phones. These vulnerabilities allow someone to remove hack “millions” of newer devices. As of now, Samsung has not fixed these vulnerabilities.
As Motherboard quotes the researcher,
“Everything you can do wrong there, they do it. You can see that nobody with any understanding of security looked at this code or wrote it. It’s like taking an undergraduate and letting him program your software.”
When contacted, Samsung sent the researcher an automated email in response.
Samsung’s current smartphone lineup is heavily dependent on Android, so these news shouldn’t necessarily impact your opinion of their Android smartphones in particular. But Samsung’s other avenues that involve Tizen are likely to invite hackers to explore and find more of such zero-day vulnerabilities. There needs to be a higher priority on Tizen’s security if Samsung ever wants Tizen to bean OS for the internet of things.
Read more.
