Samsung Galaxy S7's vulnerability could put 30 million users at risk

SAMSUNG ELEC-RESULTS/ Representational image

Researchers at an Austrian university have found a security flaw in Samsung's Galaxy S7 smartphone, potentially putting up to 30 million users at risk of hacking.

The researchers at Austria's Graz Technical University found that the Samsung Galaxy S7's microchip is at risk from the 'Meltdown' vulnerability; hackers could potentially use Meltdown to reveal the contents of a S7's CPU. According to the researchers, the hackers can exploit the Meltdown vulnerability to deceive applications to provide passwords or bank details.

Samsung has said that it created a patch, which was issued to S7 users a month ago to protect against Meltdown.

The researchers plan to release their findings on the Meltdown vulnerability of the Samsung Galaxy S7 at a conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Interestingly, the Samsung Galaxy S7's higher-price 'cousin', the Note 7, which was also released in 2016, turned out to be a disaster for Samsung. The Samsung Note 7's problems with exploding batteries earned it considerable bad press, seeing Samsung lose nearly $26 billion in market value after the model was recalled.