Major Security Flaw Discovered By Google In Samsung Modems – Check If Your Phone Is Affected

In all, the Project Zero team was able to detect 18 different vulnerabilities affecting Exynos modems. Four of these vulnerabilities were of an extremely serious nature and could potentially allow hackers to remotely access the phone without any user interaction. The only thing the hacker needed to know to gain access was the phone number of the potential victim. Google refused to share additional information about the vulnerability owing to the fact that they could be exploited very easily. The rest of the vulnerabilities the group identified were of a relatively minor nature, the blog post confirmed.

The Project Zero team had been aware of these issues since late 2022 and even alerted Samsung. However, Samsung has yet to issue a patch to fix the vulnerabilities even 90 days after they were warned about the same. In an unusual move, a researcher part of Project Zero even criticized Samsung for dragging its feet in issuing a fix.

End-users still don’t have patches 90 days after report…. https://t.co/dkA9kuzTso

— Maddie Stone (@maddiestone) March 16, 2023

The list of devices affected by these vulnerabilities includes last year’s flagship smartphone — the Samsung Galaxy S23, two M-series devices (Galaxy M33, M13), a bunch of Galaxy A series phones ( A71, A53, A33, A21s, A13, A12, and A04), and Google’s Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 lineup. In addition to these, the issue also affects several Vivo handsets that use the same Exynos modem. These handsets include the Vivo S16, S15, S6, X70, X60 and X30 series. Additionally, Google has indicated that the upcoming March security update should patch the issue for the Pixel devices.