Google is warning that some Samsung-powered Android (opens in new tab) units are affected by high-severity vulnerabilities which permit menace actors to compromise the endpoints remotely with out person interplay.
In a weblog put up (opens in new tab) revealed on the Venture Zero web site earlier this week, Google’s researchers stated that they reported 18 zero-day vulnerabilities present in Samsung’s Exynos Modems in late 2022 and early 2023. Of these 18, 4 are high-severity, permitting for internet-to-baseband distant code execution.
With many organizations counting on cell units energy their workforce, financially-motivated hackers, in addition to state-sponsored menace actors from China and Russia, for instance, will search to take advantage of these flaws in malicious campaigns of knowledge theft and espionage.
No person interplay required
“Assessments performed by Venture Zero verify that these 4 vulnerabilities permit an attacker to remotely compromise a telephone on the baseband degree with no person interplay, and require solely that the attacker know the sufferer’s telephone quantity. With restricted further analysis and growth, we imagine that expert attackers would be capable of rapidly create an operational exploit to compromise affected units silently and remotely,” the researchers stated.
Of the 4 vulnerabilities, only one has an assigned CVE – CVE-2023-24033. The opposite three are pending.
On condition that the Android ecosystem is decentralized, the velocity at which the issues obtain patches depends upon the producers. Google, for instance, has already patched these flaws for its Pixel smartphone lineup, in its March replace.
For others, reminiscent of Samsung, or Vivo, it depends upon how briskly these firms react. For that purpose, Google determined to not share extra particulars in regards to the flaws, so as to not give the attackers any head begin.
In anticipation of the patch, IT groups who’re nervous in regards to the flaws can go for a workaround – turning off Wi-Fi calling and Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) primarily renders the vulnerabilities innocent.
Right here’s the complete listing of all of the affected units, as per Google’s Venture Zero:
- Cell units from Samsung, together with these within the S22, M33, M13, M12, A71, A53, A33, A21, A13, A12 and A04 sequence;
- Cell units from Vivo, together with these within the S16, S15, S6, X70, X60 and X30 sequence;
- The Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 sequence of units from Google;
- any wearables that use the Exynos W920 chipset; and
- any autos that use the Exynos Auto T5123 chipset.
On condition that the issues solely have an effect on Android units working on Exynos, the information comes as an sudden win for Qualcomm, particularly within the SMB sector. Whether or not or not the corporate capitalizes on the information and the way stays to be seen.
By way of: TechCrunch (opens in new tab)