LG, Samsung Ban Smart TV Apps After 42% Were Found to Enable Residential Proxies

1 articles · Updated · Boy Genius Report · Aug 19

LG and Samsung said they will block smart TV apps that contain software enabling residential proxies, after researchers found many apps could let outsiders route traffic through users’ home internet connections.
Spur found more than 42% of downloadable LG TV apps—and a similar share on Samsung sets—contained SDKs that could turn televisions into always-on proxy nodes tied to the owner’s public IP address.
Mnemonic researcher Harrison Sand said a licensed Pac-Man game on Samsung TVs included Bright Data technology that could collect from residential nodes; the app had appeared in Samsung’s Editor’s Choice section.
The risk is that hackers can mask activity behind a household’s IP address, while app “shell” designs can let developers swap external code without pushing a new version, complicating detection and review.