A user on the popular xda-developers forum by the name of alephzain recently reported a severe vulnerability in the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note II, and potentially several other devices. The vulnerability could give remotely downloaded apps the ability to read user data, brick phones, or perform other malicious activities. As many people store sensitive and important data on their phones for both personal reasons as well as for work, security seems to play a very important role when it comes to making decisions of which device to buy. Seeing how such a big issue was brought up for the Android platform, it isn’t a surprise to see iOS devices becoming more popular at home and in the enterprise market.
According to alephzain, “The good news is we can easily obtain root on these devices and the bad is there is no control over it.” Although many of the vulnerabilities that pop up require physical access to the phone, multiple developers are indicating that this newly-identified issue is far more severe as it could allow apps downloaded from the Google Play Store an easy way to exploit the devices affected. Based on another user from the popular forum by the name of supercurio, Samsung was notified of the security whole but the company has not publicly acknowledged the issue as of yet. As of right now, it isn’t clear what the risks for the users affected exactly are, but the vulnerability does seem to be gaining publicity. The user notes that “millions of vulnerable devices are out there now” as the vulnerability affects all devices with Exynos 4210 and 4412 processors that use Samsung code.
Fortunately for Apple, iOS devices don’t seem to be affected with similar issues but one can only imagine what it must feel like to be in the shoes of those affected. Apple was previously noted as being the target for many potential hackers as malware began to surface on the iOS platform, but luckily, it was nothing as severe as what seems to be going on for the affected devices on the Android platform as of right now. If additional vulnerabilities continue to surface or if Samsung fails to respond in a timely fashion, the rate at which the iOS platform gains popularity might increase drastically going forward.
Source: xda developers (forum) via The Verge
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