Google advises Android users to take action after finding 18 zero-day vulnerabilities in popular phones

In brief: Google has issued a warning to users of certain Android handsets, wearables, and vehicles after its Project Zero team of security analysts reported eighteen zero-day vulnerabilities in Exynos Modems produced by Samsung.

Google Project Zero head Tim Willis wrote that the four most serious of the eighteen vulnerabilities, all of which were reported in late 2022 and 2023, allow an attacker to remotely compromise a phone at the baseband level with no user interaction. Compromising a vulnerable device would only require an attacker to know a target's phone number.

A hacker exploiting one of the vulnerabilities would gain total access to all the data moving to and from the device, including calls, texts, and cellular data. Willis writes that skilled attackers could quickly create an operational exploit to compromise affected devices silently and remotely.

The remaining 14 vulnerabilities were not as severe, as they require either a ...