Samsung and LG are taking steps to delete apps containing covert residential proxy functions following reports that some smart TV applications could be exploited for botnet activity and other malicious purposes, highlighting growing security concerns as televisions increasingly resemble computing devices.
Samsung and LG are moving to purge smart TV apps that security researchers say contained hidden residential proxy functions, after reports that some sets could be enlisted into botnets without the owner’s knowledge. The issue affects televisions running LG webOS and Samsung Tizen, and has also been reported on Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices. According to TechRadar’s reporting, the problem has raised broader concerns about how far smart TVs have drifted from simple displays towards always-connected computers with security risks of their own.
The core of the issue is a feature known as a residential proxy, or reproxy, which routes internet traffic through a consumer device so that online requests appear to come from an ordinary household connection rather than a data centre. That can be useful for legitimate testing or advertising work, but security firms say it can also be abused to hide automation, bypass geographic restrictions and mask malicious activity. TechRadar reported that the same technique was being used to support AI-related scraping and, potentially, coordinated attacks. Researchers cited by the article said some affected apps continued operating in the background even when they were not open.
Security researcher Harrison Sand of Mnemonic identified one example as a Pac-Man game that Samsung had featured as an Editor’s Choice recommendation, underlining how ordinary-looking software can conceal infrastructure with a very different purpose. According to Spur, 26.5 per cent of Samsung Tizen apps and more than 42.5 per cent of LG webOS apps contained code that could be used in this way. The scale of those figures suggests the problem was not confined to a handful of rogue titles, but may have spread through software development kits and third-party components used by app makers who did not fully understand what they were shipping.
LG and Samsung have both said they will remove apps that contain residential proxy code. TechRadar reported that LG completed its removal process by 15 September after two months of app takedowns, while Samsung said it was still working to identify and remove affected apps and had restricted new app registrations for such software. Amazon, Roku and Google TV have already banned IPIDEA, one of the services said to be involved, and have also limited the newer Bright Data network. The episode is a reminder that as television platforms become more like general-purpose computing devices, they inherit the same class of background threats, data collection concerns and opaque software supply-chain risks that have long troubled PCs and phones.
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