As TVs continue to get smarter, so do the attacks targeting them. Earlier this year it was reported that some malicious Smart TV apps contain residential proxies, allowing bad actors to transform a regular home network into a piece of a botnet web.
LG and Samsung have responded to this news, vowing to remove any apps that could possibly be affected. LG says that it completed this process on September 15th, following two months of combing through apps and removing any malicious ones. Samsung says that it has restricted new app registrations, and is currently “working to identify and remove all apps… that contain these components.”
“A residential proxy network is not an intended use for LG smart TVs, and LG Electronics is working with developers to remove the residential proxy option from their apps on the webOS platform,” LG SVP John Taylor told KrebsOnSecurity in July. “If this option is not removed, these apps will be suspended.”
“We have already restricted new app registrations that incorporate such proxy functionalities on our Smart TV platform,” Samsung said in a statement to TechCrunch last month. “We are currently implementing strict platform-wide developer policies explicitly banning residential proxy SDKs, and we are working to identify and remove all apps currently available in our store that contain these components.”
