Samsung patches nearly 200 security issues on its phone hardware - here's what you need to know

Samsung has patched 176 security vulnerabilities found in its preinstalled mobile apps, which could allow attackers to take control of user accounts, execute arbitrary code, and hijack network traffic. Oversecured, a team of security researchers, discovered these flaws across Samsung's system applications over the past three years.

Some vulnerabilities enabled microphone and camera access, while others allowed for remote takeover of Samsung Accounts with a single click. Researchers also found a way to hijack network traffic via DNS manipulation and an image file that could execute malicious code when opened. Additionally, the researchers discovered path traversal vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to write arbitrary files to the device's file system without proper validation.

Samsung received the report of the vulnerabilities and fixed all of them, according to Oversecured's findings. The company's proprietary apps, which cannot be uninstalled or removed from devices, are not covered by Google's Play Protect and operate with elevated privileges. The researchers caution that these security flaws pose a risk to hundreds of millions of Samsung device users.