Samsung is moving to remove smart TV applications that can route outsiders’ online activity through customers’ household internet connections, following security research that found proxy software hidden inside popular television apps.
Several Samsung smart TV apps contained code capable of enrolling a television in a residential proxy network, potentially exposing millions of devices to misuse.
ZDNet had also highlighted the wider smart TV problem, reporting that LG planned to suspend rogue applications while Samsung television sets were affected by similar proxy technology.
Apps Could Relay Traffic After Users Stop Watching
Residential proxy software allows another person or company to send internet traffic through a consumer’s device and home IP address.
TechCrunch explained that a smart TV containing this code can become an exit node, making an outsider’s web activity appear to originate from the television owner’s ordinary home or office connection.
The report said the proxy component may continue operating in the background even after the user closes the application.
The technology is not automatically illegal. Residential proxies can help researchers collect public web data or allow people to bypass censorship. However, they can also conceal the true location of attackers, making malicious activity appear to come from an unsuspecting household.
Cybersecurity companies have connected residential proxy networks with hacking, espionage, data breaches and efforts to disguise overseas attacks as ordinary domestic internet activity.
Samsung-Endorsed Pac-Man Game Contained Proxy Code
The affected applications were not necessarily obscure downloads hidden deep inside Samsung’s app marketplace.
One application was a basic Pac-Man game that Samsung had promoted through the Editor’s Choice section displayed on customers’ televisions.
Some developers claimed their affected applications had been installed on hundreds of millions of televisions.
Norwegian cybersecurity company Mnemonic uncovered the issue after examining how television applications load content from external servers.
Many of the apps contained only a small amount of locally reviewed code and then retrieved their main content from websites after installation.
This arrangement created a review gap because Samsung could inspect the application submitted to its store without necessarily seeing everything later delivered through the remote server.
Bright Data Software Found Inside the Game
Mnemonic offensive security consultant Harrison Sand examined a rooted Samsung television to observe the network activity generated by its applications.
TechCrunch reported that Sand found proxy software from Israeli company Bright Data inside the Pac-Man game.
The proxy function remained inactive until the user accepted a consent prompt, after which it could continue running until the application was deleted.
Sand warned that changing code on the remote server could potentially activate hundreds of millions of televisions as part of a large network.
The traffic visible during his limited examination appeared to involve large-scale collection of LinkedIn profiles and data intended for AI training.
Bright Data did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Samsung Promises Store-Wide Removal
Samsung announced its policy change after TechCrunch contacted the company regarding Mnemonic’s findings.
Samsung shared that it had already stopped accepting new smart TV applications containing proxy functions.
The company said it was introducing platform-wide developer rules that expressly prohibit residential proxy software development kits and was identifying existing applications for removal.
Samsung’s action follows a similar response from LG.
ZDNet reported that LG planned to suspend rogue applications capable of secretly turning televisions into proxy devices. Earlier research found proxy software in about 42% of applications available through LG’s smart TV store.
The findings show how a simple television application can create consequences far beyond entertainment. When third-party traffic passes through a household connection, the television owner’s IP address—and potentially their reputation—can become attached to activity performed by someone they have never met.
