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

Key Points:

• Security research reveals that several popular Samsung smart TV apps contain code that shares users’ internet connections with strangers via residential proxy networks (resproxies), potentially exposing millions of TVs to hijacking risks.
• Some of these apps, including a Samsung-endorsed Pac-Man game, funnel outsiders’ web traffic through users’ home internet connections, turning smart TVs into exit nodes that operate even when the app is closed.
• Resproxies, while sometimes used for legitimate purposes like evading censorship or AI data scraping, are increasingly linked to cybercrime because they mask malicious activity by appearing as ordinary household internet traffic.
• Samsung has responded by banning apps with resproxy functionality, restricting new app registrations with such code, and working to remove existing offending apps from its Smart TV platform.
• The research also highlights the challenge of detecting malicious resproxy activity, as the network traffic is encrypted and appears legitimate, and warns that a simple code change could activate millions of smart TVs into a botnet for large-scale data scraping or cyberattacks.