Samsung Reportedly Shipped 100 Million Smartphones with a Major Security Flaw

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 24 February 2022, 08:02 am

Samsung is known for its tight security measures on its devices, but a mishap has caused a major security flaw passing the tech giant's strict inspection.

Samsung Ships Phones with Security Issues

According to Android Police, Samsung has shipped millions of Galaxy smartphones with a security issue. The users who purchase the defective devices may not even realize the problem.

The researchers from Tel Aviv University uncovered issues with how Galaxy S8, S9, S10, S20, and S21 smartphones stored cryptographic keys through ARM's TrustZone system, which SamMobile first spotted.

The vulnerability could make it possible for scammers and hackers to know how to access encryption information to figure out that the phone is not protected.

Also Read: Only Nexus And Samsung Android Smartphones Are Safe To Use, Security Firm Says

Samsung's security for its smartphones sounds reliable on paper. The tech giant's security features a layered environment surrounding a TrustZone Operating System or TZOS, which runs alongside Android and performs cryptographic functions.

Ideally, this should be enough protection on devices, but the way cryptographic functions were implemented inside the TZOS amounted to a poorly documented link to the security chain. It presented hackers with a workable route to the smartphone's most sensitive information.

The Israeli researchers warn that while the focus in this report is on the 100 million Samsung smartphones shipped, the overall need for effective standards when it comes to distributing code for the phone's security is the priority.

Luckily, Samsung was alerted to these issues and released a series of fixes between August and October 2021. If you haven't updated your Samsung phone yet, this might be a good reminder to immediately take care of that issue.

Security Patches

Despite the security flaw on the shipped Galaxy phones, Samsung has updated the latest security patches on its other smartphone models, according to TechCrunch.

The tech giant began rolling out the Android security patches for February 2022 to its devices towards the end of last month. The Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy A50s were the first devices to get the February 2022 patches.

The last security update that Samsung sent out was in April 2021 for the Galaxy models.

Over the past few weeks, the tech giant has released One UI update with the latest security patches to a bunch of other devices, according to XDA Developers.

The security patches were rolled out to the Galaxy S series devices, including the entire Galaxy S21 lineup, the Galaxy S20 lineup, the Galaxy 20 FE, and the Galaxy S21 FE. Also, the Galaxy S10 lineup and the Galaxy S10 Lite have received the security update.

Aside from the smartphones mentioned above, Samsung has also released One UI 4 updates with the February 2022 security patches for most of its Galaxy Z series phones.

These updates were rolled out on the original Galaxy Ford 4G and Galaxy Fold 5G, the Galaxy Z Fold 2, and Galaxy Z Fold 3, together with three other Galaxy Z Flip variants.

Samsung began the February 2022 patch rollout with the Galaxy Note 20. The tech giant has since released the security patches to the Galaxy Note 10 series and the Galaxy Note 9.