A security exploit was just recently discovered that affects several Samsung Galaxy. The discovery was made over at the XDA forums by a person going by the handle Alephzain. He found a way to root the device without flashing it with Odin. This makes it easy to gain root access and leaves the device open to attack.
Alephzain discovered this exploit while working on the Samsung Galaxy SIII however it could potentially exist in other devices using the Exynos 4210 and 4412 processor. This means that the SII, Note II and the Meizu MX could very well be affected as well.
The exploit is found in the kernel itself which makes the device easy to root. Once rooted, any app can gain full control over the physical memory of your device and even the kernel itself. If you get a malware-laden app then you will have your personal information exposed.
As of the moment there is no known Android app that takes advantage of this exploit. However, since news of this has already spread then there’s a great chance that some enterprising individual will come create one.
An XDA forum member named RyanZA has come up with a patch for this exploit however some SIII owners say that after installing the patch they encountered problems with the camera app of their phone.
Since there is still no official fix for this the best thing for you to do is not to install any app from unknown sources. Make it a point to download apps from official channels such as Google Play. Make sure that you have security software running on your device and that it is updated with the latest definitions. This makes it harder for malware to go undetected.
Samsung has yet to make an official statement regarding this however they have already been notified about it. I’m sure they are already trying to come up with a solution to this matter.
