Samsung Rushes Zero-Day Vulnerability Fix for Galaxy Phones

Samsung has just issued a fix for a zero-day security vulnerability that was being used to hack into customers’ phones. The said security flaw was discovered in a software library for displaying images on Samsung devices. This allowed hackers to remotely plant malicious code on Samsung devices running Android 13 and later. That’s essentially any device that came out after the Galaxy S23 series, plus any that were updated to Android 13. So that’s a huge amount of Samsung devices.

As usual, Samsung did not provide a list of devices that were affected by the vulnerability. This is so that those who haven’t gotten the update aren’t being targeted. With the information being more widely known.

This type of vulnerability is called a “zero-day” vulnerability because the manufacturer was given no time to fix it before it was exploited. These are typically the worst vulnerabilities to have as well.

Samsung isn’t alone in pushing out zero-day vulnerability fixes, as Apple and WhatsApp both recently had to rush out fixes for their own customers. These vulnerabilities were being used to target both iPhone and Android users.

Don’t be too worried about this, as there will always be vulnerabilities surfacing in code for different devices and apps. The impportant thing is to let the manufacturers fix it very quickly and make sure you update your device.

Important reminder to always keep your phone up-to-date

This is a very important reminder that if you have a software update available on your phone, you should install it. It is pretty annoying to have to wait for the update to install, and it could change things or make battery life worse. But that is far better than having your phone hacked, your identity stolen or anything else like that. Which is very possible here.

To update your device, make sure you go into Settings > System > Software update. It’ll be a similar path for all Android phones. While on iOS, it’s System > General > Software Updates.