Samsung Galaxy S3 - Lock-Screen Hack Grants Unauthorised Access

Apple attracted a lot of negative press when it was revealed that hackers could bypass the iPhone's Passcode security in iOS 6.1. Apple are working on iOS 6.1.3 which will resolve the problem and this is due to be released shortly.

Now a similar problem has now been identified affecting Samsung's Galaxy S3. Samsung's smartphone is owned by over 40 million people worldwide, so it's a pretty serious issue.

Samsung Galaxy S3 - Lock-Screen Hack

The Samsung Galaxy S3 suffers from a bug which enables the devices lock-screen to be by-passed. This effectively enables unauthorised access to the smartphone and all the data stored on the device including photos, videos, message history and more.

The bug differs slightly from the one affecting Apple's iPhone and exploits the emergency call feature to bypass the Galaxy S3's lock-screen. In order to gain access a user needs to input a sequence of 4 buttons very quickly and assuming you did the timing right you'll have full access to the smartphone.

We validated the bug on our Galaxy S4 , although it isn't easy and the timings seems very specific. However, after a fair few attempts we gained unauthorised access to the smartphone. You can find out how to try it yourself below.

Samsung's Response To The Galaxy S3 Security Flaw ?

Samsung are yet to comment on the lock-screen bug , but behind the scenes they are probably working frantically to replicate the problem. They'll then set their boffins on producing a fix for the problem which they'll be keen to roll-out as quickly as possible.

As soon as Samsung officially comment on the problem we'll let you know. Until then 3G recommends that users don't leave their smartphone lying around.