How the new Samsung Message Guard protects your smartphone from zero-click attacks

Samsung Message Guard – the ultimate protection against zero-click messaging errors? The South Korean giant is convinced of this. Explanation.

Hackers and attackers in general are always looking for new ways to attack their targets. One of these methods is known as “zero clicks”. This allows you to infect a smartphone without any action on the part of the victim. Samsung wants to offer an effective solution to this increasingly common problem, and now it comes with the introduction of a new security tool called Samsung Message Guard.

What are “zero click”vulnerabilities?

Zero click flaws are a very serious security vulnerability. While most attacks rely on manipulation by the target, such as clicking on a URL or downloading a file containing malware, zero-click vulnerabilities do not require any specific action to exploit. It is enough for an attacker to send you content: as soon as it is received on your smartphone, you are already infected.

How Samsung Message Guard Protects Your Smartphone

With Samsung Message Guard on your device, the tool expects images embedded in your messages. When it appears, the system isolates this image and does not allow it to interact with the rest of your device in a so-called “sandbox”.

Message Guard will then scan the message bit by bit for malicious code. In the event of any issues, malicious content cannot be executed or sandboxed, preventing a zero-click attack from being carried out. This is a smart strategy that we hope should prevent the spread of such malware on smartphones.

Which smartphones are compatible with Samsung Message Guard?

At launch, Message Guard is only available on the latest Galaxy devices, namely the Galaxy S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra. Samsung plans to roll it out to other generations of Galaxy smartphones and tablets in the coming months. The only prerequisite is that the device must be running One UI 5.1 or later.

And don’t see it as a way to force yourself to use Samsung Messages. If you prefer the Google Messages app, you can keep using it as Samsung Message Guard also works with this app. What’s more, the South Korean giant will soon release an update allowing Message Guard to also work with third-party messaging apps.