"It may be the worst code I've ever seen," the security researcher told Motherboard. He has found 40 vulnerabilities in Samsung’s Tizen operating system that powers Smart TVs, watches, connected home devices, and phones.

Tizen is not secure
Tizen is Samsung’s Android replacement designed to power Smart TVs, watches, phones, and even connected devices for the smart home such as door locks.

But it is also a hacker’s dream, according to a security researcher form Equus Software in Isreal. Amihai Neiderman started examining the operating system 8 months ago after he bought a Samsung Smart TV.

- "It may be the worst code I've ever seen," Amihai Neiderman told Motherboard ahead of his presentation at Kapersky Lab’s Security Analyst Summit this Mondag. "Everything you can do wrong there, they do it. You can see that nobody with any understanding of security looked at this code or wrote it. It's like taking an undergraduate and letting him program your software."

”You can update a Tizen system with any malicious code you want”
All of his findings will be shared with the world at a conference on Monday but he says that one of the vulnerabilities involves the TizenStore that runs with the highest privileges in the system, allowing him to execute any type of malicious code. He also found that “programmers failed to use SSL encryption for secure connection when transmitting certain data. They use it on some data transmissions but not others, and usually not on ones that need it most”, according to the report from Motherboard. Samsung has in the past been criticized for not using encryption on its TVs. 

He found a total of 40 vulnerabilities that can be exploited remotely. It is not necessary to have access to the product.

- “You can update a Tizen system with any malicious code you want," said Neiderman.

Samsung was expecting to sell 30 million Tizen-based Smart TVs in 2015 – the same year that the OS was introduced in TVs. Samsung equipped even more TVs with Tizen in 2016 and will continue using the OS in 2017. Tizen is also installed on over 10 million phones and is heading to other types of devices.


Samsung forced to act
Amihai Neiderman contacted Samsung months ago but received an automated email in response.

After Motherboard published its article Samsung sent the following statement.

- "We are fully committed to cooperating with Mr. Neiderman to mitigate any potential vulnerabilities. Through our SmartTV Bug Bounty program, Samsung is committed to working with security experts around the world to mitigate any security risks."

A little less than two years ago, Samsung proclaimed that Tizen was built with security in mind but you may want to think twice before using your Samsung TV as a hub for your connected door locks and other devices in your home.

 - Source: Motherboard