Samsung has announced a sweeping ban on smart TV applications that covertly share users’ internet connections with third parties. The decision follows cybersecurity investigations revealing that several popular applications—including a prominent Pac-Man game once featured in Samsung’s “Editor’s Choice” section—contained hidden code that transformed televisions into residential proxy nodes. These applications, which developers claim have been installed on hundreds of millions of devices, allow external web traffic to be routed through home and office networks, often without the explicit awareness of the device owners.

The underlying mechanism relies on residential proxy networks, or “resproxies.” While these networks can be used for legitimate purposes like data scraping or bypassing censorship, they are also highly favored by cybercriminals. Because the routed traffic appears to originate from a standard household IP address rather than a malicious source, bad actors can execute cyberattacks, data breaches, and credential stuffing while remaining virtually untraceable. Security researchers discovered that some of these smart TV apps are merely basic shells designed to load external web content, allowing developers to bypass standard app store review processes by hiding the proxy code on external servers.

In response to these findings, Samsung has restricted new app registrations that utilize proxy functionalities and is actively updating its developer policies to explicitly ban residential proxy software development kits (SDKs). The tech giant is also working to identify and purge existing apps from its store that contain these components. This move mirrors a similar crackdown by LG, which recently banned proxy-enabling apps after discovering that nearly 42% of the applications on its smart TV platform were enlisting devices into residential proxy networks.

Security analyst Harrison Sand, who investigated the vulnerability by analyzing network traffic on a rooted Samsung TV, discovered that a Pac-Man game utilized proxy code from Bright Data, an Israel-based data-scraping firm. Although the proxy code remains dormant until a user accepts a consent screen, Sand warned that a simple server-side update by developers could theoretically activate these dormant networks on millions of devices simultaneously. While much of the observed traffic was tied to automated web scraping for AI training and professional networking platforms, the potential for abuse remains a significant security concern for smart home ecosystems.

Key Takeaways

• Samsung is banning and removing smart TV apps that contain residential proxy code, which shares users' internet bandwidth with external networks.
• The proxy code can turn smart TVs into 'exit nodes,' allowing third-party traffic—including potential cybercriminal activity—to route through home internet connections.
• This security crackdown follows a similar policy shift by LG, highlighting a growing industry-wide effort to secure smart home devices from unauthorized network sharing.

Editor’s Analysis & Impact

The revelation that popular smart TV applications are being used to harvest residential bandwidth highlights a growing blind spot in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. As smart TVs become central hubs in modern households, they present lucrative targets for proxy networks and cybercriminals seeking to mask their digital footprints. Samsung and LG’s swift policy changes signal a necessary shift toward stricter app store curation and developer oversight. However, this issue underscores a broader challenge: the difficulty of auditing dynamic, cloud-connected applications that can alter their behavior post-approval. Moving forward, smart TV manufacturers must implement more robust, continuous runtime monitoring rather than relying solely on static pre-publishing reviews. For consumers, this serves as a stark reminder that even seemingly harmless entertainment apps can carry hidden security risks, necessitating greater vigilance over device permissions and network activity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is a residential proxy (resproxy) network?
A: A residential proxy network routes internet traffic through ordinary home or office internet connections instead of data centers. While used legitimately for web scraping and market research, they are also used by cybercriminals to hide malicious activities behind trusted household IP addresses.

Q: How do these proxy apps get onto smart TVs?
A: Developers often build simple, low-quality apps (like basic games) that act as shells. These apps load content from external servers, allowing developers to bypass initial app store security reviews and run proxy code in the background once installed.

Q: What is Samsung doing to resolve this security issue?
A: Samsung has banned new app registrations that include proxy functionalities, updated its developer policies to explicitly prohibit residential proxy SDKs, and is actively identifying and removing existing compromised apps from its smart TV app store.