The Pwn2Own hacking competition aims to determine the security lapses of the Samsung Galaxy S22. Surprisingly, some hackers discovered that the next-gen smartphone has a lot of zero-day flaws that cybercriminals could easily exploit.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Has Zero-Day Vulnerabilities
Every year, the Zero Day Initiative or ZDI is used to hold a tradition for hackers and security experts to demonstrate how well they can handle the situation with security flaws on a particular device.
Through the Pwn2Own hacking contest, the participants are instructed to determine the presence of the vulnerabilities in the Galaxy S22 for this year.
According to a report by Mashable, the hackers found out that some devices created by WD, Canon, Sonos, HP, Synology, NETGEAR, and more have zero-day flaws.
For instance, the Chim team and the STAR Labs team encountered several issues embedded deep within Galaxy S22. The newly-launched smartphone is reportedly teeming with "security holes."
The competition, which took place in Toronto, Canada, allowed hackers to access the smartphone for a single day. The following day, another group dubbed Pentest Limited succeeded in hacking the Samsung smartphone.
Surprisingly, day 3 of the competition was even wildered when the same group managed to hack the handset in under 1 minute. The most amazing thing about this is that they did this four times in just a day.
Hacker hacked Samsung Galaxy S22 in just 55 seconds.
— Abhishek Yadav (@yabhishekhd) December 12, 2022
Samsung Knox Security 😂
" Pwn2Own Hacking event - Toronto, Canada "
The security experts from Pentest Limited shared that they accessed the system via "improper input validation."
The hacking competition aims to expose how vulnerable are the present handsets when it comes to security flaws. Because the group achieved its goal of exploring Galaxy S22's security weakness, it won $25,000 as compensation.
Indeed, Samsung needs to improve its security system on its new lineup of smartphones. A skilled hacker can compromise it in less than 60 seconds. This only shows that the device can be easily accessed by anyone, given that he/she has expertise when it comes to electronic hacking devices.
Related Article: Galaxy S22 Overheating Shall Be Blamed on Samsung Alone as Industry Insider Says it Can Also Happen to Android Flagships
Samsung Unveils December 2022 Security Update
Back in November, the South Korean tech giant launched a pair of software updates for the Galaxy S22 handsets. According to Sam Mobile, the first one is about Android 13 OS customization, while the other tackles the security patch for November.
This month, Samsung revealed another round of security patches, but this time, it is focused on fixing vulnerabilities which account for 93 flaws.
It should be noted that not all the fixes came from Samsung. Only 26 of the flaws were resolved by Samsung, while Google reportedly fixed 67 flaws in the system.
To launch the security patch for December 2022 on your device, just automatically allow S22 to install it. If you want to update your smartphone manually, go to Settings and Software Update. Then, click on Download and Install.
