Even when it is not used as the default keyboard, it can still be exploited.'Īmong the many things that can be done on a vulnerable smartphone, Welton says hackers could exploit the security hole to gain access to users' sensitive personal data, such as SMS, voice calls, emails, pictures and videos. 'The Swift keyboard comes preinstalled on Samsung devices and cannot be disabled or uninstalled. 'A remote attacker capable of controlling a user's network traffic can manipulate the keyboard update mechanism on Samsung phones and execute code as a privileged (system) user on the target's phone,' says Now Secure on its technical blog. Once the malware is embedded into the keyboard, hackers can then take control of the smartphone remotely and do as they please. The Swiftkey keyboard can be manipulated by hackers and tricked into downloading malicious code masquerading as additional language packs when the smartphone is connected to an unsecure Wi-Fi network. Mobile security researcher Ryan Welton of Now Secure discovered the security hole, which makes Samsung handsets, including the flagship Galaxy S6, Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S4 Mini, vulnerable to being attacked by unscrupulous parties going after unsuspecting individuals' private information. More than 600 million Samsung smartphones are at a huge risk of being hacked due to a vulnerability lurking in the Swiftkey-developed keyboard preinstalled in the devices.

Samsung swift keyboard