The researchers at cybersecurity company Bitdefender have detected a critical vulnerability in nearly 100,000 LG brand televisions, which allows a cybercriminal to connect (remotely) to the device via the internet and gain control to obtain payment information or data from installed apps and services.
As we shared the other day, all smart devices are susceptible to hacking, and although our smartphones and computers may seem like the only targets for cybercriminals, the truth is that they take advantage of vulnerabilities in other devices that we may not pay as much attention to, such as our television.
The Bitdefender team has explained that they have discovered up to four vulnerabilities in LG WebOS, affecting approximately 92,000 televisions from the Korean brand.
They report that the flaw occurred in the WebOS operating system of the television, within the function that allows the television to be controlled from a mobile device, using the ThinQ app. This application works through a PIN that allows the phone to connect to the television, but an error is allowing hackers to bypass authentication and easily access the television.
Here, the attacker can have remote access to the TV, which would allow them to inject any type of malware to steal information stored on the device such as payment data or user information. Fortunately, this attack is somewhat limited, as both the mobile device and the television must be connected to the same WiFi for it to work, so the attacker must be connected to your network and be near your home.
The affected television models are LG43UM7000PLA, OLED55CXPUA, OLED48C1PUB, and OLED55A23LA, to find out if yours is one of them, check the labels on the back of your television.
