Google is warning millions of Samsung phone owners about a dangerous app

GOOGLE has revealed that there is a “spyware vendors‘ for Samsung smartphones.

It was ripped from a shady Android app that victims may have been tricked into installing outside of the proper app store.

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The tech giant will not say who is suspected to be behind the attack but revealed it is following a similar pattern to others.

Experts uncovered three so-called “zero-day” security gaps.

The issue only affected certain Samsung devices with certain technology and chips.

That means models like the S10, A50 and A51 were at risk.

It also depended on where the device was sold, with Europe and Africa cited as destinations.

It was discovered back in late 2020 and patched by Samsung in March 2021, showing why it’s always important to keep your smartphone up to date.

The malicious app responsible for this let hackers bypass the usual system rules to get under the hood of the owner’s device.

Google said that Samsung is now committed to publicly communicating when vulnerabilities may be restricted and targeted as part of its release notes.

This allows experts to work more closely together when sorting bugs.

“We hope others like Samsung will join their industry peers and disclose if there is evidence that a vulnerability in one of their products is being exploited,” said Maddie Stone of Google’s Project Zero team.

“Flagging vulnerabilities that are known to be exploited in the wild is important for both targeted users and the security industry.

“If 0 days are not transparently disclosed in the wild, we cannot use this information to further protect users by using patch analysis and variant analysis to understand what attackers already know.”

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