Mitigations are attack surface, too

Summary: Project Zero's Jann Horn documented a memory corruption bug in Samsung's Android kernel for the Galaxy A50 (A505FN), caused by logic issues in Samsung's PROCA process-authentication subsystem combined with a race condition in its locking. A second vulnerability, long fixed upstream but still present in Samsung's kernel, aided exploitation, and Horn wrote what he called a very unreliable exploit.
Key Takeaway: Samsung's added kernel protections, including read-only credential structures and restricted UID 0 transitions, do not stop an attacker with kernel control from reading or modifying user data directly; by Horn's account they only block straightforward rooting tools not customized for Samsung phones, while adding attack surface and complicating rebases onto new upstream kernels.

Read the original at Google Project Zero ↗

Topics: Vulnerabilities & Patching
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