Intelligence agencies could hack into Samsung smart TVs caused by a deep flaw in the ecosystem of the Seoul-based tech giant. According to security researchers, there are up to 40 zero-day exploits for the Tizen operating system that Samsung uses for its TV, phones, and smartwatches. These vulnerabilities could be used by attackers to hack the Samsung gadgets remotely.

Worst Code Written

Amihai Neiderman, an Israeli researcher, describes Samsung’s open-source Tizen OS as the worst code he has ever seen, Motherboard reports. In March, Wikileaks published internal documents of the CIA which state that the agency could monitor owners of Samsung smart TVs. But the hack only affects older models of Samsung TV and the CIA must gain physical access to the installation of a malware using a USB stick, The Verge reports.

But Neiderman’s report shows that the hacking is wider than what Wikileaks say because of Samsung’s use of the Tizen OS. The OS runs around 30 million TV sets and Samsung plans to use the software on 10 million smartphones by the end of 2017. The shift to Tizen is part of the South Korean giant’s lesser reliance on the Android OS.

Security Analyst Summit

He will provide more details of his findings on Monday, April 10, when Neiderman delivers a talk at the Security Analyst Summit organized by Kaspersky Lab on St. Maarten Island. Samsung says it is fully committed to cooperating with the Israeli expert “to mitigate any potential vulnerabilities.”

It is the second time that Samsung’s security flaw was exposed. The first was in February in a demonstration by Rafael Scheel of Oneconsult at the European Broadcasting Union Media Cyber Security Seminar, Internet of Business reports. He showed that terrestrial radio signals could be used to hack Samsung Smart TVs remotely. Scheel adds similar bugs could possibly be found in smart TV sets made by other manufacturers.