Samsung recently announced a new security feature to protect its users from cyber threats. Named “Message Guard,” the feature prevents zero-click attacks from targeting Samsung Galaxy smartphone users.
Samsung Message Guard Rolls Out To Galaxy Handsets
Sharing the details via a post, Samsung explained its latest strategy to protect users from zero-click attacks via “Message Guard.”
Zero-click attacks take over a target device without the victim user’s interaction. On smartphones, conducting zero-click attacks is trivial for the threat actors by sending simple messages, such as image files. Although conducting a successful zero-click attack requires the adversary to exploit an unpatched vulnerability, they often succeed in doing so. (NSO’s Pegasus malware is a classic example of such exploitation against iPhones.)
As elaborated in Samsung’s post, its Galaxy devices have largely remained safe from such severe attacks. Nonetheless, to ensure its users remain safe in the future, Samsung has launched Message Guard – an advanced “sandbox” that isolates an incoming file, preventing the embedded malicious code from execution. It then scans and processes the image to ensure it doesn’t harm the device.
The Message Guard feature won’t require user input to scan a file. Instead, it’ll run in the background to check incoming images in real-time.
The tech giant has further elaborated that the Message Guard feature isn’t the first security step from the firm. Instead, it already protects its Samsung Galaxy devices with Samsung Knox – its proprietary mobile security solution pre-installed in its flagship devices. This security solution prevents cyber threats via malicious audio and video files.
However, with Message Guard, the firm strives to elevate this protection by including image checks.
The new feature is available with the Galaxy S23 series and will gradually roll out to other devices. While it currently works on Samsung Messages and Messages by Google, the provider pledges to expand the support for other third-party apps soon.
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