Security specialists at Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 have uncovered a complex spyware tool named Landfall that silently infiltrated certain Samsung Galaxy phones for close to a year. The operation relied on a serious flaw in Samsung’s Android image-processing system, which allowed the device to be compromised without the user tapping or opening anything on their screen.
Unit 42 traces the campaign back to July 2024. The underlying bug was later assigned CVE-2025-21042, and Samsung addressed it in a security update released in April 2025. The details of how attackers used the flaw became public only recently, after researchers completed their investigation.
The team emphasizes that even users who browsed risky websites or received suspicious files during that period likely avoided infection. Evidence suggests the operation was highly selective, targeting only specific individuals or groups rather than the general public. Based on submitted samples, the activity was concentrated in parts of the Middle East, including Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Morocco. Who controlled Landfall remains unknown.
The researchers discovered the spyware while examining earlier zero-click bugs affecting Apple iOS and WhatsApp. Those unrelated flaws showed how attackers could trigger remote code execution by exploiting image-handling weaknesses. This motivated Unit 42 to search for similar risks affecting Android devices. During this process, they found several suspicious files uploaded to VirusTotal that ultimately revealed the Landfall att
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