Samsung bug puts Galaxy phones, smartwatches at the risk of being hacked

Samsung update: A critical vulnerability in Samsung's Exynos chipset has left millions of smartphones and smartwatches across the globe at the risk of getting hacked. The high risk Exynos bug was highlighted by Google's Xingyu Jin and Clement Lecigne and it affects a host of the Exynos chipsets, which includes the Exynos 9820, the Exynos 9825, the Exynos 980, the Exynos 990, the Exynos 850, and the Exynos W920.

To put into perspective, these chips power a host of the company's popular smartphones and smartwatches. The list of smartphones affected by this bug include the Samsung Galaxy S20 series, the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series, the Samsung Galaxy S10 series, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series, the Samsung Galaxy A21, Galaxy A51, and the Samsung Galaxy A71. Coming to the smartwatches, the vulnerability in question also affects the Galaxy Watch 5, Galaxy Watch FE and the Galaxy Watch 4.

What is the vulnerability any why should Samsung device users care about it?

According to the data shared by Google's threat analysis group, the vulnerability in the mentioned Exynos chips could allow hackers to execute arbitrary code in a privileged process on the targeted device. This, in turn, would let hackers gain access to users' personal and private data such as bank account details, passwords, read conversations and even access photos and videos.

What made this bug particularly difficult to find for the security researchers and the on-device software is the fact that it would rename itself as a Samsung process.

While Samsung hasn't revealed if the bug has been used by malicious attackers to target users, Samsung has warned users against the vulnerability.

How can Samsung smartphone and smartwatch users protect themselves?

Samsung device owners can protect their data from this vulnerability by downloading the latest version of the available software on their smartphones and smartwatches. To update Samsung Galaxy smartphone, users need to go to the Software Update Section in the Settings app and then tap the Download and Install option. 

Similarly, to update the software on the Samsung smartwatch, users need to tap the Watch software update option in the Watch Settings of the Galaxy Wearable app.