New vulnerability in Samsung Galaxy S4 can steal SMS messages

Samsung's flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone possibly has vulnerabilities that allow hackers can send text messages without the user's knowledge, according to new findings.

The Galaxy S4 has already registered 10 million owners worldwide.

Qihoo 360 Technology, a China-based antivirus company, which discovered the vulnerability said it can potentially be used by SMS Trojans to silently send texts and incur premium messaging charges.

Qihoo 360 Technology says that they have already reported the issue to Samsung and the company is already in the process of developing an official update to fix the vulnerability.

The antivirus firm says that the flaw is related to a cloud backup feature in Galaxy S4. Qihoo explains that a rogue mobile application could contain code exploiting the vulnerability to send fraudulent scam text messages to premium-rate services.

Qihoo 360 Technology says, "By exploiting the vulnerable cloud backup feature, malware could pretend to be the identity of any contact, friend, relative, or company/organization (including your banks) when faking phishing SMS messages. When these phishing SMS messages are received, users may be tricked into clicking fraudulent links or disclosing sensitive personal information."

The firm also recommends that Galaxy S4 users should temporarily disable the cloud backup feature when not in use. It also took the opportunity to advise Galaxy S4 users that its Android mobile security app, 360 Mobile Security is protected by the issue.