Researchers have discovered a way to intercept calls made by Samsung smartphones through a malicious base station, The Register reports. The full extent of the hack is unknown, but it affects the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, and Note 4.
The weakness was discovered by Daniel Komaromy and Nico Golde and is known as a "man-in-the-middle" attack. A base station is set up near a Samsung device and, thanks to a weakness in Samsung's phones, it will automatically connect. This means that any information sent, or received, from that phone first passes through the base station.
Komaromy and Golde have notified Samsung about the attack, which was revealed at the Mobile Pwn2Own competition at PacSec, Toyko.
The weakness could be caused by a Qualcomm-made part, according to The Register, meaning that other Android smartphones would be susceptible to this type of attack.
Business Insider has reached out to Samsung to ask about the attack and its implications. We will update the post when we hear back.
