Samsung pulls smart-TV apps that turn TVs into residential proxy nodes
Security researchers found several Samsung smart-TV apps that route users' internet traffic through residential proxy networks, prompting Samsung to ban and remove the offending apps.
Mnemonic, a cybersecurity company from Norway, reported that a number of Samsung smart-TV applications contain residential proxy code, which can covertly route internet traffic from the TV to external users. The study showed that even minimal-code apps, such as a Pac-Man game highlighted in Samsung’s Editor’s Choice, load proxy SDKs from Bright Data, an Israeli provider of residential networks. When a user consents, the code activates and can keep the TV acting as an always-on tunnel, potentially adding millions of devices to a botnet.
Samsung said it has halted new app submissions that include proxy functionality and is actively purging current apps that embed the code. The policy shift mirrors LG’s recent decision to ban similar apps after finding that roughly 42% of its store’s offerings participated in proxy networks. Researchers noted that while residential proxies can be used for legitimate purposes like censorship circumvention, they are increasingly exploited for large-scale data scraping and cyber-espionage.
Why it matters
Millions of household TVs could be silently used to hide malicious internet traffic, exposing users to privacy and security risks.
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