After a recently discovered security flaw in the Samsung Galaxy S III and other Samsung devices, Samsung has released an over the air (OTA) update to address the problem. The OTA update secures Galaxy S III owners from the factory-reset hack that could wipe all data.
What You Need To Know:
- Last week, Ravi Borgaonkar, a researcher from Technical University Berlin, demonstrated the vulnerability of Samsung devices at the Ekoparty security conference in Argentina.
- The security flaw is about the way Samsung TouchWiz devices handled USSD codes, which are allowed to execute commands automatically. This mishap allows potential hackers to send codes and execute commands to a phone with no user confirmation.
- With this flaw, malicious codes could be embedded in a Web link, QR code, NFC connection and SMS.
- In its statement, Samsung only mentioned the Galaxy S III. Other Samsung devices such as the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Note are also susceptible to this hack.
Sources:
Samsung confirms Galaxy S III hack is already patched
Android Community
Samsung: Galaxy S III remote wipe flaw is already patched
Slash Gear
Samsung offers up patch for Galaxy S3 remote wipe vulnerability
CNET