Samsung TV & Smartwatch: Users Warned Of Security Issues Due To Tizen OS Flaws; Some Phones May Be Affected By Year End
Security researchers found out that Samsung TV and smartwatch are vulnerable to attackers due to its Tizen OS. By the end of the year, the South Korean company plans to have 10 million phones running the same operating system.
Around 30 million Samsung TV are run by Tizen OS which an Israeli researcher named Amihai Neiderman said as the worst code he has ever seen. "Everything you can do wrong there, they do it. You can see that nobody with any understanding of security looked at this code or wrote it. It's like taking an undergraduate and letting him program your software," he said in an interview with Motherboard.
One flaw seen by the Israeli researcher on Tizen OS is that it lets attackers hijack a Samsung TV and install a malicious code on it. Hackers can take full control over the device through the TizenStore software.
The Verge reports that Samsung plans to have 10 million phones on Tizen OS by the end of the year. This is the attempt of the South Korean tech company to detach itself from Google's Android software. However, with the discovery of these security issues, they may not be ready to install the operating system to its Galaxy range of handsets.
Samsung Gear smartwatches and phones in countries like Bangladesh, India, and Russia have Tizen OS running already. Early this year, Samsung has announced that it is planning to put Tizen on their smart devices like washing machines and refrigerators.
Neiderman has contacted Samsung to report the flaws he found on his Samsung TV with Tizen OS. The Israeli researcher only got an automated email in response. However, the company sent him another email after an article was published concerning security issues. "We are fully committed to cooperating with Mr. Neiderman to mitigate any potential vulnerabilities," the statement reads.
