Samsung S6 still vulnerable to year-old vulnerability, could be used for spying by hackers

Samsung's latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S6, is still vulnerable to a previously discovered security vulnerability that could allow hackers to spy on user behavior, Internet security firm NowSecure said today.

Last fall, NowSecure researchers discovered a security vulnerability in most Samsung smartphones that allowed hackers to spy on users. In March of this year, Samsung told NowSecure that it had provided a fix to mobile operators and hoped that NowSecure would wait three months before announcing the news so that operators could provide the fix to users.

Last week, NowSecure researchers purchased Samsung's latest generation flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S6, from Verizon Wireless and Sprint respectively, and found that both phones were still affected by the vulnerability.

The vulnerability, which NowSecure researcher Ryan Welton will disclose Tuesday at the Black Hat mobile security conference in London, occurs when a Galaxy phone receives data after a user updates its keyboard software.

NowSecure said they contacted Samsung about the issue in November 2014. On December 16, Samsung responded that it needed more time. On December 31, Samsung said it would take a year to fix the issue.

NowSecure CEO Andrew Hoog thought that a year was too long because hackers might find the vulnerability if its security personnel discovered it. The two sides went back and forth until March this year, when Samsung said it had developed a patch and provided it to mobile operators. Both parties also agreed that the vulnerability could be made public after three months.

Huger said he was "heartbroken" by Samsung's delay. NowSecure said it has not found a single Samsung phone that has been patched so far, although it has not yet tested T-Mobile's products.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.