The Samsung Galaxy S23 may now be one of the most secure smartphones after the company released a new security tool that aims to protect users from zero-click attacks: those that do not require the input of the victim.
The new Message Guard service will only be available on Samsung Galaxy S23 devices for now and will cover threats seen in Samsung Messages and Messages by Google.
Images in zero-click exploits contain malicious code that, when received, allows attackers to gain access to the device. It’s so secret that, in theory, the victim could be asleep while the image is received, and all of their data could be extracted before they wake up in the morning.
Samsung Message Guard
In a blog post (opens in a new tab) In announcing Message Guard, Samsung noted that such attacks had already been discovered in the Apple ecosystem, when cybercriminals managed to compromise an endpoint simply by sending an image via SMS.
While there is currently no evidence of such attacks being carried out on Android devices, Samsung believes a pre-emptive strike is best.
Explaining how the feature works, Samsung described Message Guard as “an advanced ‘sandbox’ or sort of virtual quarantine.
“When the image file arrives, it’s trapped and isolated from the rest of the device,” Samsung explained. “This prevents malicious code from accessing the phone’s files or interacting with its operating system.”
“Samsung Message Guard checks the file step by step and processes it in a controlled environment to make sure it cannot infect the rest of the device,” Samsung explained.
This feature is enabled by default on all Samsung Galaxy S23 devices, so no user interaction is required. Samsung also said the feature works “quietly and largely invisibly in the background.”
The company has confirmed that the feature will be coming to older Samsung phones (all models with One UI 5.1 or later), as well as other text messaging apps later in 2023.