Samsung will use Message Guard to check chat messages for zero-click malware

Samsung’s Galaxy S23 phones are getting Message Guard, a feature that can scan images for zero-click malware. Zero-click malware is malware that can steal data without user intervention. Message Guard only works in the Messages apps.

When users receive an image through Samsung’s or Google’s Messages app, it first opens within the Samsung Message Guard sandbox. Here looks Message Guard whether the image contains malware that attempts to access the operating system or data on the phone. For example, Message Guard should prevent such malware from stealing data from the user.

Samsung claims that such zero-click malware does not yet exist on Samsung smartphones, although a zero-click vulnerability was previously found in Samsung smartphones. In 2020, dozens of journalists would have been attacked with Pegasus spyware, which exploited a zero-click vulnerability in iOS.

Message Guard works automatically and ‘largely invisible’ to the user, and can scan png, jpg, jpeg, gif, ico, webp, bmp and wbmp files for zero-click malware. The service is currently only available on the Galaxy S23, but should also appear on other Samsung smartphones and tablets later this year, provided they run One UI 5.1 or higher. Later, Samsung plans to release a software update so that Message Guard also works on other messaging apps, in addition to the Messages apps from Google and Samsung.