A recently discovered vulnerability in a Wi-Fi chipset could be exploited to take over devices without users’ knowledge. A Google researcher publicly disclosed the bug in a blog post this week, which accompanied news from both Apple and Google that they’re patching devices in response. In his post and as detailed by Ars Technica, Gal Beniamini demonstrates how he exploited a Wi-Fi SoC manufactured by Broadcom to execute malicious code by solely being within the same Wi-Fi range of the targeted phone. No user interaction is required. This attack is slightly terrifying because the chipset hardware is baked into lots of phones, including the Nexus 5, 6, and 6P, as well as most Samsung flagship devices and all iPhones since the iPhone 4.

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