If you own a Samsung smartphone, it may be time to check if your device has some vulnerabilities. This is because a cybersecurity firm recently found vulnerabilities in the native Galaxy Store app.
As reported by PhoneArena, the NCC Group released an advisory after discovering the vulnerabilities in the Samsung Galaxy storefront app. These were spotted between November 23 and December 3, 2022. The cybersecurity firm revealed that attackers were able to install any app on a Galaxy phone without needing the knowledge of the user. These flaws were assigned to the numbers CVE-2023-21433 and CVE-2023-21434.
The advisory revealed that the attack had the potential to allow bad actors to gain personal information of the users. It could also lead to a faulty app. It’s possible that an attacker could upload a malicious app before these flaws were exploited. The app could have been installed on the smartphone of the user without his knowledge. If this happens, the user could have been put at serious security risk.
The NCC Group wrote:
"It was found that the Galaxy Store has an exported activity which does not handle incoming intents in a safe manner. This allows other applications installed on the same Samsung device to automatically install any application available on the Galaxy Store without the user’s knowledge. A pre-installed rouge application on a Samsung device running Android 12 or below can abuse this issue to install any application currently available on the Galaxy Store."
Samsung devices running on Android 13 are safe from CVE-2023-21433 since it has security features that prevent the flaw from being executed. Not to mention, Samsung released an update on the first day of the year, which patched two vulnerabilities of the Galaxy Store.
TL;DR, the best way you can protect yourself against such vulnerabilities is to make sure you have the latest Galaxy Store app running on your device. This is the best way you can prevent such flaws to attack your phone.
Source: PhoneArena
