A group of Google security specialists advises against utilizing Wi-Fi calling if you have an Android phone.
The Google Project Zero team acknowledged earlier this month that it had discovered numerous flaws in Samsung’s Exynos chipsets.
Four of these enable the “Internet-to-baseband remote code execution,” which enables hackers to remotely compromise a few Android devices.
Project Zero Team Found Vulnerabilities in Android Phones Chipsets
According to Project Zero, a group of security researchers that studies zero-day vulnerabilities—software weaknesses that are well-known but don’t yet have a patch to stop them—the hacker would just need to know your phone number.
“With limited additional research and development, we believe that skilled attackers would be able to quickly create an operational exploit to compromise affected devices silently and remotely.”
The remaining 14 Project Zero vulnerabilities were deemed to be “not as severe.”
According to Samsung, the following gadgets may be impacted since they employ the Exynos chipset:
- Samsung Galaxy S22, M33, M12, M13, A71, A53, A33, A21s, A13, A12, and A04 models
- Vivo S16, S15, S6, X70, X60, and X30 series
- Google Pixel 6 and 7
If a vehicle’s chipset is an Exynos Auto T5123, it might also be impacted. Google claims that the vulnerabilities have already been fixed for Pixel phones, however Samsung claims that a patch has been made available for some of the flaws.
To protect yourself against hackers, you can also disable Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) and Wi-Fi calling if your phone hasn’t had an upgrade in a while.
While you’re not connected to a cellular network, you can make calls and send texts using Wi-Fi calling, whereas VoLTE uses your LTE network rather than the typical network.
Users of Samsung devices can access Wi-Fi calling settings by going to Settings, Connections, and Wi-Fi Calling. You’ll see a toggle that, if it hasn’t been turned off previously, can be.
Users of Google Pixel devices should navigate to Settings, select Network & Internet, then Mobile Network, and then press Advanced to access the Wi-Fi calling feature.
For a lot of smartphones, VoLTE is turned on by default. For the majority of Samsung and Google phones, it is located under Settings, followed by Connections, and then Mobile Network.
Also, the Project Zero team advises updating your phone as soon as new software and patches become available.
To read our blog on “Android devices will have Apple’s satellite messaging feature,” click here.
