Samsung is beginning to roll out a security patch to UK Galaxy S3 phones, designed to clear up a bug in the S3's Exynos chip that could potentially see some phones being wiped or bricked by naughty hackers.
The sudden death bug, as it's known, was found by an XDA Developers user and gives hackers access to the RAM of phones including the Galaxy S2, S3 and Note. "RAM dump, kernel code injection and others could be possible via app installation from Play Store," user alephzain explains.
Samsung has pointed out that it only affects a very limited number of devices, but it could affect those running stock Android or custom ROMs after rooting the device.
The update is said to be available now as an over-the-air release or over Kies software but at the time of writing, my Galaxy S3 showed no available update, so it could be that certain models are receiving it before others. XDA explains how to download the update manually using Kies, but warns you do this at your own risk.
Having your phone potentially bricked by a remote hacker with a malicious mind is clearly quite a worrying issue, but it doesn't seem to have been a widespread one. Security holes are sadly quite a common occurrance, particularly in new software that may have had small issues overlooked. Thankfully, Samsung has acted to patch it up before too much damage has been done.
Have you been affected by the bug? Do you know anyone who has? Let me know in the comments below, or over on our rock-solid Facebook page.
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anonymous 4 January, 2013 18:05
I think you're mixing up two separate issues. One is the kernel related security issue which Samsung are releasing a patch for, the other is the 'sudden death' problem, which is something entirely different. The latter is one Samsung have been slow to acknowledge, causing a number of owners who find their devices have died over night considerable grief.
anonymous 4 January, 2013 18:25
I have suffered the sudden death. i have a GT-I9300 from UK. i was having lunch, hear the email notify and when i have tried to check it it was turn off and never turn on again...
I am working with Samsung to address the issue but they want me to afford the shippment cost to UK (about 90 dollars without custom).
i am looking forward that they can give me support at the Samsung Local Facilities.
anonymous 4 January, 2013 18:57
My S3 has suffered the sudden death, I'm with the 3 network in the UK but have been out of the UK since Christmas. I was away to take a photo just before Christmas only to find the phone completely dead, changed batteries and recharged but still dead as a parrot. Really frustrating as couldn't use my phone over Christmas to take photos and won't be back in the UK until early February. So now using an ancient Nokia which drives me mad after using the S3 but at least it works !!!
Damien2501 4 January, 2013 19:34
Good to know my Galaxy S isn't affected. I'm sure Samsung will fix all the problems a minority of its smartphones suffer soon. Many 2012 phones have problems, HTC and Sony phones suffer from over heating and other bugs and the iPhone5 is even suffering from problems, such as poor battery life.
anonymous 4 January, 2013 19:42
I have upgraded my GS3 OTA and I have got to say, this is more than just a bug fix. I have new features which are in the premium suite upgrade like multi-window and other improvements. Great job by Samsung, hopefully all future upgrades will go as smoothly as this.
anonymous 4 January, 2013 19:49
Happened to me, samsung said that they will repair it, however i was rooted, we'll just have to wait and see what they say.
anonymous 4 January, 2013 23:50
my galaxy s2 gave batt low warning so turned it of and put it on charge. the next morning i turned it on and it got halfway through the boot sequence and froze , it wouldn't even turn off, so i removed the battery left it for 5 min and put the battery back in and it has not worked since. that was 2 weeks ago.all the usual resets were tried to no avail and it's now at the service center
anonymous 5 January, 2013 09:49
They should all replace the unit with this kind of problem wether your unit vame from network provider, samsung store, grey units or what so ever. Its still customer rights because we pay for it. Its their fault of selling defective units. All samsung store should replace the unit whether its not local samsung units because its still samsung units!!!!
anonymous 5 January, 2013 10:55
I think i have the sudden death issue. This is my fourth or fifth galaxy s3 handset. The others were replaced due to poor sound quality and in the end it was resolved by updating my firmware so there was not a need to replace all those handsets. before my phone was in sudden death, i had issues where the phone would crash and a message would be displayed saying "unfortunately this process has stopped working". Last night i put my phone on charge, around 4am i looked at my phone and it was quite hot so i unplugged my charger and i had a blue flashing light so i wanted to check if it was a message but nothing was happening. so i powered it off and now i cant turn it on. tried a new battery but no luck. Called Orange and they said i would need to send the phone for repairs. this is really annoying.
anonymous 5 January, 2013 18:09
yes my phone bricked over night was stuck on the boot screen and nothing else to my phone in to phones for you they sent it off to samsung and they said i had fried the chip because i rooted the device and it voids the warentee and didnt issue me a replacement or fix my phone well i hadent rooted my phone at all and wouldnt know how to either so now im stuck in a 2 year contract without my phone thats the reason i took a contract out in the first place to get the s3 cause i couldnt afford it outright and now obviously more and more reports of users handsets being bricked they cant accuse everyone of rooting there devices can they so now there admitting a sudden death bug and issueing new handsets well for me its to late as mine died about 6 weeks ago and know longer have the broken phone cause i sold it for the screen samsung you really do suck and treating your customers like dirt acusing and making false acusations in order to get out of honouring your warentee!!!!
anonymous 5 January, 2013 22:41
My S3 I got a few months ago (One of the first Garnet Red editions)
Suddenly went off like the battery had been pulled out mid text this morning,
Then I noticed the phone got really hot, it wouldn't turn on atall or appear to be effected by plugging into a charger (It was full battery anyway from charging overnight)
Took it into carphone warehouse to be sent off for repair and she noticed how very hot it was too, guess it's fried it's motherboard. Bit concerned even if they repair it that other hardware has probably been damaged and the life span of the phone shortened. Never thought I'd say it but should have got an iphone!
Without a phone for atleast a week and been told I will lose EVERYTHING on the phone - GREAT!!!
David Lewis 5 January, 2013 22:44
My S3 from T-mobile UK bricked whilst I was on holiday in Brazil. I went to use it and it appeared to be turned off, and never came back to life, exactly six months to the day after I got it. It's currently with T-Mobile being sorted, maybe they can update it to Jelly Bean whilst they are at it, they still haven't rolled that update out!!!
Fahd Aur Shumyla 5 January, 2013 23:48
Hi, I have a S3-i9300 on vodafone in UK and same thing happened to me about 2months back. I received a call and finished it and when picked up to check time after abt 15 min...it was gone.never came back up. Sent it in warranty through Carphonewarehouse and the issue was fixed by them. had to live w/o a smartphone for nearly 2 weeks....but the issue fixed now.
anonymous 6 January, 2013 11:22
Lousy written article, sudden death issue has nothing to do with the Exynos bug, besides, sudden death is not security related. Shame on Andrew Hoyle, the article author.
anonymous 6 January, 2013 11:22
Lousy written article, sudden death issue has nothing to do with the Exynos bug, besides, sudden death is not security related. Shame on Andrew Hoyle, the article author.
anonymous 6 January, 2013 11:23
Lousy written article, sudden death issue has nothing to do with the Exynos bug, besides, sudden death is not security related. Shame on Andrew Hoyle, the article author.
anonymous 6 January, 2013 11:28
Half of your title is pure BS. Half of the article actually.
anonymous 7 January, 2013 07:52
my GS3 phone died a couple of weeks back,
I bought it last June 2012 while in Dubai
no warranty
so that is 700 USD down the drain,
never buying samsung again,
anonymous 7 January, 2013 07:53
Both me and my aunt have our s3 phones dead, even though we purchased them in London and Moscow, respectively. Seems to be not such a rare problem after all.
anonymous 7 January, 2013 16:35
I think the author has been most misled by Samsung. The vast majority of the victims were not hackers or rooters and had standard, unmodified units, myself included. This is a munufacturing issue, but that would look very bad on Samsung, which is why they are happy to pedal the story that somehow "bad people" (hackers) are somehow attacking devices of "naive people" (rooters) and it isn't their fault. If you read all the reports, it points to an issue with the eMMC chip in the mainboard of the earlier-released versions.
anonymous 7 January, 2013 16:46
....or maybe Andrew Hoyle is on a fat commission from Samsung....he even quotes an unidentified user from a blog, who himself says "could be possible". Either very shoddy journalism or a vested interest............
anonymous 7 January, 2013 21:15
My phone died during Xmas holidays . i got it here in Mexico and Samsung Service really sucks. It is happening all over the world, bs design.
anonymous 8 January, 2013 14:13
I also had what might have been the sudden death problem, I made an out going call put my Galaxy down on the coffee table I then heard the phone what I thought was rebooting but it only got as far as the Galaxy Logo screen and that was it I tried removing the battery a soft reset a hard reset and an emergency firmware recovery using Kies, but to no avail it was bricked Fortunately it was still under warranty so sent it way and a week later its up and running
anonymous 10 January, 2013 08:01
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your reply. There is no specific reason I can give that I can say was the caused of the problem but this is what happened. I was using my phone in the morning till around in the afternoon when the phone just went off and wouldn’t boot up again. I left it on the beds to take a shower and when I came back to my surprise, the screen was black. Pressed the home button and nothing, took the battery off and put it back again and still nothing. That was when I contacted Samsung about the issue.
I got my samsng galaxy s3 from the UK. My phone is now laying here with no use is bearly less than a year when I had my phone and now is dead. It pain my heart somuch. I have contated samsung because of the warranty bt it seems they either cannot do anything about it apart from sympatsin with me or they are not prepaired to help me. Please I would be very grateful if you could be of any help to me.
With a kind regards
Ebrima
anonymous 10 January, 2013 11:26
Im from malaysia, i got my samsung s3 from samsung store. My phone's alarm rang, i offed it. seems pretty normal but when i woke up the next hour to check my phone for any notification, the phone could not responds and it died off. Tried many ways to TURN IT ON but it FAILED.
Sent my phone for warranty and the service center personnel already knew the problem, he says it's the chipset problem and will replace a new one. However, since there is alot information about samsung replacing the mainboards with a non-revised version, it would probably happen in the nex few phone. hopefully, samsung does something to this or else my phone wiont get a full warranty after it exceeds 1 year!
anonymous 10 January, 2013 15:05
Had my S3 since October, bought it in T-Mobile Slovakia. It started acted funny like 4 days ago, rebooted a couple of times and then 2 days ago it just stopped working. I've tried to reset, took the battery out but nothing helped. Only got to the S3 Samsung starting screen. Nothing helped. So atm it is back in T-mobile and hopefully I get a new one or probably the whole mother board will be replaced. In the future I`ll know to backup my apps and all the contacts, as I think it'll all be gone
anonymous 11 January, 2013 01:27
My 1 and a 1/2 year old S2 died about 2 weeks ago. I took a photo, put the phone back in my coat pocket. Checked it again about 2 hours later and it wouldn't power on, despite fully charged battery that morning. Got home, phone wouldn't charge, tried spare battery, combinations of reset keystrokes....nothing, just a black screen. Phoned Samsung support, they were quite good actually and promptly sent me a pre-paid returns bag. 3 days after it arrived they've replaced the main board and are shipping the phone back. Not arrived yet - I'm curious to know what version of Android will be installed and whether it'll be the same Orange branded OS. I'm hoping it'll be a newer version of Android without the Orange crap. Nice to have a 2 year warranty and not have anyone try and say otherwise !
My S2 has been cherished and well looked after since new, and I never root a phone, and only install software directly from Google Play. Yet is still failed. So the quote from Samsung about rooted phones is clearly not applicable in my case.
anonymous 11 January, 2013 19:40
My current samsung galaxy s3 is facing sudden death this morning my device was working perfectly fine until later in the evening i though the battery had died so when i got home i plugged in the charger and left it for like 10 mins come back and still no charging light so i tried to turn on the phone but it wouldn't boot up so i took out the battery sim card/memory card then put all back together and yet still wouldn't turn on.... then i looked online about this problem :( and my samsung galaxy s3 isn't under warranty i have had my s3 for about 9 months
anonymous 13 January, 2013 17:18
I had the same problem. My s3 died overnight for no reason. I took it back to the store and they revived it, only to have it die again 3 days later.
I asked for a new phone, but Samsung said that the warranty states that it must be repaired, so now I have to send it back to them and wait at least 2 weeks without a phone! I plan to call Verizon tomorrow and ask them to pay me back for the time that I cannot use the phone!
wildfire uk 16 January, 2013 22:31
Iv owned the Samsung galaxy s2 since July.2011 and until the galaxy s3 came out nothing has compared and still hasn't to my liking. as others have said i drop my phone so much I'm surprised it did not Give it brain damage let alone just a few scratches. I love this phone warts and all. The amount of fights i had with i phone loving work colleagues over wether the i phone is better than samsung and always being the only one with the s2 in the office it was a tough competion but i put up a goods fight most of the time it was always the speed of the operating system that let me down in those fights and picture quality but i don't care i just don't want to be owned by apple in what i can and can't do with my phone.
On another note on December the 26. My phone died like every one else on here went to bed left it on and on charge woke up in the morning phone off and won't turn on tried every think naturally i freaked out left my partner to walk to work in the freezing cold as all order of my day had been thrown out of the window in those few seconds! my partner now believes my phone is more important to me than taking him to work in the warmth lol i did an emergancy dash to Vodafone shop, luckily i have Vodafone insurance so the phone was sent in to be repaired i must admit it was good timing that my phone died when it did as it was looking pretty knocked up around the sides and with a scratch going through the middle of the screen . phone cases Iv learnt really do have a purpose lol :-( got the phone back in four days looking brand new just out of the box They did say it had somethink to do with the mother board but at least i got what looks like a brand New phone back that works slightly better too. still love the s2 though it can do me no wrong i just wish the gps would find a signal just as quick as other phones when using google maps. Let's see if any think new comes out in May when my contract Is up i just know though it will be a S3 though can't wait. thanks for taking the time to read this guys please excuse all my bad grammer but its late at night and Iv tired my Eyes out just by writing this post but I'm sure you get the point of my long ass story the S2 is stool a major player in this tough game it would take something pretty special other than the S3 to beat it
Sarah
anonymous 18 January, 2013 10:00
My Galaxy S3 has also suffered the "Sudden Death" this morning :/
I have had it for 6 nd half months, and this is just painfully sad. I have contacted Samsung via web but i have no hope of getting this fixed. Tried everything, from taking the battery out, putting it back in and trying to open. but still no luck.
I read from the news the OTA update of JellyBean 4.1.2 fixes the issue, however i did not receive any OTA updates to my phone.
anonymous 18 January, 2013 12:48
I have the same issue with Samsung SIII, it just switched off and didn't turn on again, like the others, done everything as well, like hard reset etc., unfortunately nothing happened. I'm in Thailand right now and my phone was bought from Singapore, I've sent an e-mail to Samsung Singapore so I'm just waiting for there reply. I don't know how they're going to fix it, but I'm hoping they will do it in favor of the customer.
anonymous 18 January, 2013 23:30
My S3 died this morning, simillar experience as others have described! shocked!
3 network suggesting to contact samsung?!
anonymous 19 January, 2013 10:54
i think i was affected by this bug. my phone suddenly died on me and it wouldnt start or light up. even the Charging red Led would not work. i had to take it to my local warranty service center and they changed the whole motherboard for me. thankfully my phone was still under warranty!!
anonymous 20 January, 2013 22:43
I was so excited when I got my S3, but all I feel now is total grief. >:1
Samsung aren't even fixing it yet, I've got the latest 4.1.2 Android Jellybean Update, and nothing has been fixed, I live in the UK, and it feels sad to be ignored by Samsung.
anonymous 21 January, 2013 17:32
Never mind sudden death.Be just as well dead since updating to JellyBean s3 takes forever to charge and then drains the battery in no time.
anonymous 22 January, 2013 09:49
Still the same problem for me since the update 4.1.1., even after the upgrade patch 4.1.2, my SG3 dies sometimes during the night or daytime, have to take out the battery to be able to restart it. Hope a fix will come soon by Samsung.
anonymous 22 January, 2013 13:49
Same issue.. My phone suddenly in DEAD MODE after about 5 months of usage.. But my concern is, CAN WE RECOVER ALL THE DATA ON THE PHONE? 1 - I have not made any backup.. 2 - it can't be turn on, so how the hell am I gonna upgrade to latest version in order to save my data..
To those techie out there, is there any way we can separate the internal memory off the DEAD motherboard? Somewhat like PC, we can still remove & recover files from the Hard Disk although the motherboard is burned..
anonymous 23 January, 2013 13:42
Same issue since yesterday. Bought my phone october 2012 and this happen in 3 month plus time. Bought it at singapore and i am at Brunei. Gonna Fed Ex it to Samsung Singapore to let them fix it.
anonymous 26 January, 2013 04:43
Go to XDA http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1993044 and check to see if your phone has the sudden death issue. I checked mine and it has the same chip & firmware and it looks like mine has the damn bug.
anonymous 27 January, 2013 03:53
I called Samsung US customer support and asked for help they said since you bought your phone on ebay shipped from Singapore we can't help you and you don't not have US warranty. So we called Singapore they said we can't fix it and ship to USA, we can only help you if you are in Singapore. So USA customers buying international Samsung phones are screwed. Please don't buy international versions as you will not have warranty.
anonymous 29 January, 2013 10:59
Same problem with my international version.I had replaced it earlier for some batery issue.now in 4 months its again dead.Gave it to the samsung repair store and now have to live without my phone and when my phone retuns back i have to again install the apps again :(
p.s I live in India and the phone was running JB 4.1.2
anonymous 31 January, 2013 15:08
My Galaxy S3 (7 months old) used to shutdown unexpectedly at times- I generally ignored it and just restarted the phone and went about with my day.
Today however the device shutdown and I was unable to Start it again.
Tried the Power button, Did not work
Removed the battery, waited for 1minute, re-inserted the battery, Tried the power button- Did not work
Held the Volume Up button+Home+Power button for close to 1minute- Did not work
Googled around, and came across lots of pages descirbing a 'sudden death' issue,
And it seems its affected my phone as well.
Have to send it to Samsung Service Centre.
Samsung must/should own the responsibility of repair my phone or replace my 7month old device..
Anyone else with the same problem ?
anonymous 3 February, 2013 12:38
F**k Samsung,I'm really pissed.my s3 died barely 2months after getting it
anonymous 3 February, 2013 13:20
Had sudden death issue my my 4 months old S3. Put on charging on night and wake up to find that phone was not switching on and RED LED was Switched ON. Thought that battery removing and inserting should solve the issue but not. Changed the chargers but no charging up.
Gave to waranty center and they replaced the entire board. Would have been screwed if no waranty. The data was gone however.Pissed off really. Had to use CHINA MOBILE DUAL SIM for 2 days ;)
anonymous 5 February, 2013 04:40
Same hsppened to me. It shuts fown automatically some days before. I turn it on again. Ok. But one week later. Sudden death after charging it all night. The red light kept on n off. I tried to recharge it. No way. I don't have a guarantee. Shop waiting for a used motherboard to repair it. Still waiting since Christmas. Finally I bought another new s3 as still has the best features Unfortunately.
anonymous 5 February, 2013 18:21
I just downloaded Kies.. and my phone is a brick.. Just tonight.. 30 minutes ago.. this is crap
anonymous 6 February, 2013 22:41
I bought my Galaxy S3 in Ghana before starting school in the UK. Unfortunately on the first of January this yr, my phone blacked out the won't start beyond the Samsung logo. I contacted Samsung UK about it and apparently, I can't have it repaired as my warranty applies to another region. They wouldn't even repair it for me at a fee! No other repair stores want to touch the device. I am so disappointed I probably won't consider another Samsung device; the inconvenience is just too great. I just can't understand why I should bear the frustration of buying a Samsung phone that was defective from the manufacturer. It just makes sense to be able to repair a product anywhere in the world even if it is at a cost; Samsung just can't be bothered. How appalling.
anonymous 7 February, 2013 12:28
Dear my name is Babar Rashid and I am from pakistan. My S3 after recent software update starts restarting itself. Some times it restart itself for no. Of times and I can not use my phone untill it holds on to it. I am very much worried about it. Did not take my device to repair center on the ground it might get fixed after an update. Please help me to resolve this issue.
Thanks
anonymous 12 February, 2013 12:17
I hope the patch soon be delivered.
anonymous 14 February, 2013 05:53
I experienced sudden death issue for my phone Samsung Galaxy S III GT-I9300. I called Samsung support in USA. They said International versions are not supported in USA, warranty is not valid for the sets purchased on ebay and amazon according to Samsung support.
anonymous 14 February, 2013 22:39
Emnews.ir
anonymous 15 February, 2013 07:39
Mine died in Thailand. Because it was from the UK, Samsung would not fix it under warranty. It was in the service centre for two weeks before they told me that. It is an expensive repair.
Will never buy another Samsung phone.
anonymous 15 February, 2013 11:35
case of sudden death also happened with my phone GALAXY S3 Model NO GT 19300 on day before yesterday, purchased from a SAMSUNG PLAZA in Patna, Bihar INDIA on June 2012 , when I went to SAMSUNG service center, he kept the phone and later informed on phone that due to local software PBA of your mobile crashed and it does not cover warranty and gave me estimate for expenses need to pay for repairing of phone.
But when I search on web regarding the problem very surprise to see a lot of similar problem and service center and customer care also did taking note this serious problem and trying to avoid the issue.
anonymous 18 February, 2013 00:47
50 tips and tricks regarding Samsung Galaxy S3:
http://smart-phones-how-to.blogspot.com/
anonymous 21 February, 2013 02:41
Hi
I am from South Australia and I bought a S3 from Kuwait and the phone is still under Local warranty. Recently I found the phone is dead and I contacted Kuwait dealer.
They told me to send the phone to Kuwait but it will cost more than value of the phone , if the phone is sent to Kuwait. . I apporaced main dealer in Australia via email (samsung_mobile_spt@wds.co ) no one responded me.
Could any one suggest me how can I get the phone repared in South Australia?
my email Id : fazlinhaddad@gmail.com
anonymous 27 February, 2013 18:25
hi
i am from bolivia and my today at this morning i realized that my galaxy s3 is death for some update from google play
i really dissapointed about this phone and samsung i boght this phone in preorder in amazon
so i dont know where to go and do in my country thsi kind of bugs should be fixed as soon as they appear for all the devices around the world
this make me realized that i took a bad decision to get a galaxy s3, i should get and iphone which has more warranties and its softwares is much better
any suggest how to fix it mail me pls to jisusss@gmail.com
anonymous 5 March, 2013 16:33
Plugged my s3 in on a Friday night to charge Saturday Morning stone dead would not turn on at all.Took it into T.mobile they have sent it away for repair week and a half later still no phone.
Can they fix it once it has been affected by this "sudden death"???
anonymous 7 March, 2013 13:57
You can add another S3 to the list of dead phones. Mine turned itself a few nights ago and never came back. No power LED or anything - just dead. This report really should be updated to reflect the fact that this fault has nothing to do with hackers or rooted phones.
anonymous 8 March, 2013 11:17
My phone is currently restarting itself and frezzing when it starts updating apps. The home button has became unresponsive a few times. I'm taking it back to hopefully get it replaced under warrenty as Samsung are silently replacing certain 16GB handsets.
anonymous 18 March, 2013 19:18
This phone suddenly stop working one minute, I tried to use the warranty and Samsung Latinoamerica just told me that they can’t accept my phone because it has a scratch on the plastic and the Warranty is voided. This is the Worse Customer Service ever.
anonymous 25 March, 2013 09:27
Can someone confirm if the new update fixes the sudden death issue
anonymous 1 April, 2013 23:54
i tried update galaxy s3 sch-r530 and the phone turn off and now i can´t turn it on nothing happen
Some Way to fix this_?
anonymous 2 April, 2013 20:17
i have got this problem ,my phone was bought from dubai so i sent it there got repaired but donno what they did . please advice what software version must be in order to be protected . BR
anonymous 7 April, 2013 10:31
I'm with virgin mobile in Australia, ive had my phone for 10 months and suddenly just crashed. It still works and ive used recovery to clear the cache hoping it works but no such luck. I dont know whether to wait for the S4or go for repairs.
anonymous 16 April, 2013 16:56
Mine died last night. Mo charging light comes on or anything, just blackness. Im with 3 uk and had a repair for speaker done through them last september. This time I will ge goint ot samsung service centre, 3 were shocking.
anonymous 23 April, 2013 12:38
Yeah, my S3 is suffering from the sudden death after I updated my ROM manually to android 4.2.1 and rooted it.