Shocking! Samsung Galaxy S22 hacked in less than a minute

They were able to completely hack the smartphone in 55 seconds - less than a minute. As per the report, the hack earned them $25,000 at Pwn2Own hacking contest. Interestingly, the Galaxy S22 phone was hacked four times during the event held from December 6 to December 8. A total of 26 contestants from 14 different countries participated in the Pwn2Own hacking contest.

“On the first day of Pwn2Own Toronto, the STAR Labs team and a security researcher only known as Chim demoed two other zero-day exploits in successful attacks targeting the Galaxy S22", the Bleeping Computer report says. In all four cases, the smartphone was running the latest version of Android operating system with all available updates installed.

During the hacking competition, teams and security researchers targeted devices in multiple categories that includes smartphones, home automation hubs, printers, wireless routers, network-attached storage, and smart speakers categories, all up-to-date and in their default configuration. No team, as per the report, signed up to hack the Apple iPhone 13 and Google Pixel 6 smartphones.

Official statements

“Samsung takes security seriously and is committed to providing a safe and secure experience for our customers. We are working to further enhance the security of our devices by releasing a security patch within December,” Samsung said in a statement to Forbes after Day 1 of the event.

“Meanwhile, we recommend users only download trusted applications and keep their devices updated with the latest software to ensure the highest level of protection possible.”

Samsung Galaxy S22 Gets Exploited Multiple Times

Samsung Galaxy S22 was successfully broken into twice during the first day of the Pwn2Own Toronto 2022 hacking competition.

Team STAR Labs was the first to successfully exploit a zero-day vulnerability on Samsung’s flagship device on their third attempt by executing an improper input validation attack. The winning team won $50,000, the devices under test, and 5 Master of Pwn points.

The Pwn2Own Toronto 2022 wrapped up with contestants earning $989,750 for 63 zero-day exploits across multiple categories.

In another news, Samsung is reportedly planning to launch the Galaxy S23 series in February 2023. A report by a South Korean daily, Korea JoongAng Daily says that the upcoming smartphone series will be announced at the Galaxy Unpacked event in the US in the month of February. However, the exact day and date are yet not known.

As per the report, the series may offer three smartphones – Samsung Galaxy S23, Samsung S23 Plus, and Samsung S23 Ultra. The handsets are expected to run on the latest Android operating system and may come powered by the recently launched Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor.