The US government is urging federal employees who use Samsung Galaxy devices to update their devices as soon as possible. Apparently, there are a couple of bugs that could allow potential attackers to access private data that would normally not be accessible.
In June, Google listed a vulnerability in Pixel phones as CVE-2024-32896. The vulnerability had the “High Severity” label, and its complementary notes said that it would be “under limited, targeted exploitation.” After that, the US government gave federal employees 21 days to update their Pixel devices. Otherwise, they would have to stop using them.
US federal employees should update their Galaxy devices as soon as possible
A new CISA warning includes a deadline for Galaxy phones for the same vulnerability seen on Pixels. Now, US government employees must update their Galaxy devices before August 28. You might be wondering why the first CISA warning targeting Pixel phones didn’t include Samsung Galaxy devices as well. That’s because, at the time, the CVE-2024-32896 vulnerability was thought to only affect Google phones. However, it was later found to affect all Android phones, but the original warning was never updated with that information.
The Galaxy update that addresses the vulnerability includes a fix for a couple of bugs that would enable privilege escalation-based attacks. The latter basically means that third parties could get unauthorized access to private data on the device through certain (complex) methods. For federal employees, these types of vulnerabilities can be especially severe, even more so if their devices contain classified US government data.
According to Samsung, the bugs have already been exploited in the real world under certain specific conditions. Following the new CISA warning, multiple organizations and companies will likely follow the federal government’s mandate. As with Pixel phones, it’s highly unlikely that “regular” Galaxy users will be targeted by attackers through these exploits. Still, it’s best to keep your device up to date to protect your privacy and security.
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