A serious vulnerability in Samsung’s Exynos processors is being exploited by attackers to execute code remotely, according to Google security experts.
The bug affects phones and smartwatches powered by Exynos 9820, 9825, 980, 990, 850 and W920 processors and received a severity rating of 8.1 on a 10-point scale, The Register reports.
This means that affected devices include the Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy A51 and A71 series, Galaxy S20, Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy A21, Galaxy M13, and Galaxy M12.
For smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 4, Galaxy Watch 5, and Galaxy Watch FE series are affected.
Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry
Google experts have already seen the bug exploited in attacks where it is chained with other vulnerabilities to execute code on users’ phones. The bug lies in memory management and page mapping management.
“This zero-day exploit is part of an EoP chain,” Google experts say. “The attacker can execute arbitrary code in a privileged camera server process and also renamed the process name to ‘[email protected]’ to make tracking more difficult.”
Samsung has now started distributing security updates in its monthly security release and urges users to keep their devices updated. Learn how to update Android.
A Samsung spokesperson said that “the company is committed to providing the highest level of security to its users and is aware of the vulnerability.”
This article was originally published in our sister publication PC för Alla and has been translated and adapted from Swedish.
