Exynos-powered Samsung phones to get Wi-Fi calling vulnerability fix soon

Last week, Google disclosed several severe active flaws in Samsung’s Exynos chips that could allow hackers to remotely hack smartphones by simply knowing a phone number. The issue affects not only a number of Samsung phones but also Vivo and Google Pixel devices. While Google has patched the vulnerabilities through its March security update for Pixels, it appears affected Samsung Galaxy devices still remain at risk, at least for a few more days.

A concerned Samsung user recently submitted a post about the Wi-Fi calling vulnerability on the company’s US community forum. A community manager replied to the user’s query confirming that Samsung fixed a few vulnerabilities affecting Exynos-powered Galaxy phones with the March update. More fixes are coming in the April security patch, the moderator claimed.

It’s unclear why the moderator is saying that none of the security vulnerabilities found in Exynos models of Samsung’s phones were severe. Google’s claimed that at least four of the 18 reported security issues with the Samsung chips in question are severe and could give hackers access to users’ phones.

Meanwhile, Google’s Project Zero blog that originally opened up this can of worms has been updated to reflect that switching off Wi-Fi calling to protect against the vulnerability may not be possible on all affected devices. Some carriers can control the Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE settings, overriding the ability for some users to change these settings.

Nevertheless, you must keep an eye out for the latest security updates available on your affected Samsung, Vivo, or Pixel devices and install them as soon as possible to reduce your risk of being hacked.