This article explains a recently disclosed vulnerability, independently discovered by the Google's Project Zero team and by Quarkslab some months ago. To our knowledge, this vulnerability was present, on all Samsung devices using Android 5, and allowed remote code execution as system user simply by browsing a website, by downloading an email attachment or via a malicious third party application with no permission.

UPDATE: A way to patch the vulnerability is provided at the end of the article. We explain a vulnerability found when the Samsung Galaxy S5 was released and patched recently by Samsung. It allows a remote attacker to install an arbitrary application by using an unsecure update mechanism implemented in the UniversalMDMClient application related to the Samsung KNOX security solution. The vulnerability has been patched on the Samsung Galaxy S5 but also Note 4 and Alpha. Yet the Samsung Galaxy S4, S4 mini, Note3 and Ace 4 (and possibly others) are still vulnerable.