Samsung bans smart TV apps that share users’ internet connections with strangers

Samsung has taken action against a series of smart TV applications that have been found to be compromising users' internet connections by funneling outsiders' web traffic through residential connections. This security flaw, which has been discovered in several popular Samsung apps, has the potential to impact millions of Samsung smart TVs worldwide.

One such app, a Pac-Man game, was even endorsed by Samsung and featured prominently in its "Editor's Choice" section. The apps in question contain software that creates exit nodes, allowing outsiders to use the smart TV as a proxy server for their web traffic. These exit nodes, known as residential proxy networks, have been linked to cybercrime.

The security research, conducted by Norwegian firm Mnemonic, has highlighted the inherent risks associated with these apps, which often contain minimal code and act as mere shells to load content from other websites. Mnemonic's investigation revealed that the Pac-Man game app, in particular, contained resproxy code from Bright Data, an Israel-based company that provides proxy networks and sells access to scraped datasets.

When the app is opened, the resproxy code is activated, creating an always-on tunnel for outsiders to use the smart TV's internet connection. Samsung has responded to the security concerns by banning apps that share users' internet connections and restricting new app registrations that incorporate such proxy functionalities. The company is also working on implementing strict platform-wide developer policies to prevent the inclusion of residential proxy SDKs in future apps.

This move follows a similar decision by LG, which has banned apps containing resproxy software after recent reporting found that around 42% of apps on its app store enlisted smart TVs into proxy networks.