Researchers in Israel have said that they have found a serious vulnerability with the Samsung Galaxy S4 enterprise software which could allow hackers to get hold of the owners email along with other data.
The flaw is found in the high-level security software called Knox and was found by a Ph.D student at the Ben-Gurion University.
Guri said through a news release issued by the university “To us, Knox symbolizes state-of-the-art in terms of secure mobile architectures and I was surprised to find that such a big ‘hole’ exists and was left untouched.”
“The Knox has been widely adopted by many organizations and government agencies and this weakness has to be addressed immediately before it falls into the wrong hands,” he said. “We are also contacting Samsung in order to provide them with the full technical details of the breach so it can be fixed immediately.”
Researchers pointed out that hackers could use this flaw and install what looks like an innocent app onto the device which could get hold of data, emails, file transfers and browser activity.
A Samsung spokesperson talked to the Wall Street Journal and said that they were looking into the claim. It was said that the breach was found on a handset that didn’t come with all of the extra software that a corporate client would typically have and use alongside Knox.
Knox is security software from Samsung that provides an additional level of protection for handsets that Samsung markets for government and corporate clients. It means they are able to switch between personal and work use by pressing just one icon on the device.
Knox was introduced with the release of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. It is not preloaded onto the Samsung Galaxy S4 but owners can download it.
The team’s findings in Israel arrived just as the government in the US is deciding on whether to move over to Android handsets such as the Galaxy phones or the iPhones, away from Blackberry.
