Since this is a translation of an overseas article, there may be some mistranslations.
https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1789729974
LG and Samsung Promise to Ban Apps That Abuse Smart TVs for Botnets
Following revelations earlier this year, LG and Samsung have promised to ban smart TV apps containing 'resproxies' that can turn users' TVs and home networks into nodes for malicious botnets.
In April 2026, Lowpass revealed that numerous apps and games available on Amazon's Fire TV, Roku, LG's webOS, and Samsung's Tizen were secretly using users' smart TVs for AI training data collection and other malicious purposes.
As a result, hundreds of millions of smart TVs – and home internet connections – have been acting as a massive proxy botnet, capable of being controlled by operators to perform almost any task, even when the app is not running on the TV. There have also been cases where this botnet has been rented out to hacking groups in China, North Korea, Iran, and Russia.
One of the malware-infected apps was a popular Pac-Man game for children, according to Mnemonic cybersecurity researcher Harrison Sand. Samsung even listed this game as an Editor's Choice on smart TVs.
Resproxies Found in 42% of All webOS Apps
Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Google TV no longer allow the existing malicious botnet IPIDEA within apps, and Bright Data's latest Resproxy botnet has also been restricted. However, Bright Data still lists LG and Samsung as partners.
According to research by security firm Spur, over 42.5% of apps and games available on LG's webOS contained botnet code that could bypass internet traffic through LG smart TVs in homes worldwide. Samsung's Tizen smart TVs also allowed 26.5% of its available apps to do the same.
LG & Samsung Finally Promise Action
Following backlash against the published research findings, LG announced at the end of July that it was working with developers to remove Resproxies from apps.
"Residential proxy networks are not intended for use with LG smart TVs. LG Electronics is collaborating with developers to remove residential proxy options from apps on the webOS platform," John Taylor, Senior Vice President of LG, told KrebsOnSecurity. "If this option is not removed, those apps will be discontinued."
In early August, Samsung followed suit, issuing a statement to TechCrunch:
"We have already restricted the registration of new apps containing these proxy functions on our smart TV platform. We are currently implementing a strict platform-wide developer policy that explicitly prohibits residential proxy SDKs and are working to identify and remove all apps containing these components from the current store."
The question remains: why did they allow this for so long? Meanwhile, LG is facing a series of allegations that its smart TVs are spying on and extensively tracking users.
▶ Source: https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1789729974
