A significant security issue has been discovered in Samsung devices powered by Android. According to the exploit that came to our attention Monday morning on the XDA Developers forum, the flaw in question leaves some users vulnerable to apps capable of giving hackers root level access and permissions.
In a nutshell, the controversial exploit allegedly gives hackers access to a device’s physical memory.
One user named Alephzain claims to have probed the matter on a Samsung Galaxy S III but also found the problem on the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note II and other devices.
“The good news is we can easily obtain root on these devices and the bad is there is no control over it,” Alepzhain posted. “RAM dump, kernel code injection and others could be possible via app installation from Play Store. It certainly exists many ways to do that but Samsung give[s] an easy way to exploit. This security hole is dangerous and expose phone[s] to malicious apps.”
According to The Verge, “Samsung has been made aware of the security hole, but the company has not publicly acknowledged the issue.”
All told, this news comes as an unsettling development for Android, particularly on the heels of last week’s report indicated that as many as 18 million Android users will face mobile malware infection before 2013 comes to an end.
