Smartphones are probably one of the most important things we own. Of course, I am not talking about the financial value of the phone, but the information it contains, such as memories, accounts, and passwords, makes these devices invaluable to us. Although this situation makes everything much easier for us, from our financial transactions to our daily communication, it also brings some risks.
Unfortunately, if our devices are compromised in some way, this informations can fall into the wrong hands. However, we are all safe because we use very secure and up-to-date phones, and nothing will happen to us, right? Not exactly, because the 2023 flagship models Galaxy S23 and rival Xiaomi 13 Pro were hacked live. Here are the details…
Galaxy S23 and Xiaomi 13 Pro Hacked at Pwn2Own 2023
If you don’t know, an event called Pwn2Own recently started in Toronto. This event, which is essentially a hacking competition, brings together some of the world’s best security researchers to compete for prizes by exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities in popular software and devices. Pwn2Own, which has now become a traditional organization, shows us every year that we should not trust our technological products that we think are safe. This year’s victims were flagship phones.
On the first day of the ongoing Pwn2Own 2023 Toronto event, researchers were able to exploit two zero-days affecting the Samsung Galaxy S23 and two zero-days on the Xiaomi 13 Pro. One of the teams competing in the event, Team Viettel, was able to execute a single-bug attack against the Xiaomi 13 Pro. They earned $40,000 and 4 Master of Pwn points for their exploit. Another team, TAR Labs SG, was able to exploit a permissive list of allowed inputs against the Samsung Galaxy S23. They also earned $25,000 and 5 Master of Pwn points for their exploit.
Unfortunately, we do not know how these hacks were carried out or how much risk we are under. However, it is important to remember that this is a good-natured event and that this type of information may have been deliberately kept hidden. Additionally, technology companies such as Samsung and Xiaomi also closely follow these types of events. This means that manufacturers who are aware of their vulnerabilities can fix them and secure their users.
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