New Samsung Message Guard protects users against Zero-Click attacks

Samsung Message Guard will inspect the file bit by bit and process it in a controlled environment, thus neutralizing the threat to ensure the malicious file doesn’t infect the device.

Zero-Click attacks have become very powerful and widespread, mainly due to their ease of deployment. With the evolution of zero-click attacks, mobile phone manufacturers, such as Samsung, are also improving their defence mechanisms against such threats. Samsung Message Guard is one such step that prevents users from zero-click exploits on Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphones.

What are Zero-Click Attacks?

Zero-click exploits can install malware on a device using just a JPEG or PNG image file. They are pretty dangerous, as the user doesn’t need to interact with the file, such as clicking or tapping on it, to get their device infected. Users cannot detect these exploits while the malicious code steals their private data and transmits it to hackers.

As previously reported, state-sponsored cybercriminals used zero-click attacks to install NSO Group’s spyware Pegasus onto the mobile phones of dissidents, government officials, activists, politicians, and journalists.

Samsung Message Guard Will Protect Against Zero-Click Attacks

Samsung Galaxy smartphones are already equipped with advanced safety measures and a powerful Samsung Knox platform that thwart attacks exploiting audio and video formats. With Samsung Message Guard, the company has taken another step to safeguard its devices and restrict their exposure to malicious codes hidden in image attachments.

According to Samsung’s press release, this feature will work on Samsung Messages and Messages by Google. The company will also release an update to make this feature compatible with third-party messaging apps.

Simply put, Samsung Message Guard automatically neutralizes any potential threat hiding in image files before they have a chance to do you any harm. It also runs silently and largely invisibly in the background and does not need to be activated by the user.

Samsung

How Does Message Guard Prevent Zero-Click Attacks?

You can consider it an advanced sandbox or a virtual quarantine; it will run in the background with the Messages app. As soon as any image file is received, it will be isolated from the rest of the data to prevent any hidden malicious code from accessing the device data or interacting with the OS.

Samsung Message Guard will inspect the file bit by bit and process it in a controlled environment, thus neutralizing the threat to ensure the malicious file doesn’t infect the device.

Message Guard will look for malware in PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, ICO, WEBP, BMP, and WBMP formats. The feature will be rolled out to different versions of Galaxy smartphones and tablets running One UI 5.1 or above versions.