04 May 2023 , 06:08
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If you own a Fire TV Stick then it’s vital you check that it’s received an urgent upgrade from Amazon. The online retailer has recently pushed out a software patch which fixes three serious vulnerabilities that could hand hackers full access to these popular streaming devices.
The trio of glitches were discovered by the security team at Bitdefender who quickly passed on their findings to the Fire TV team.
Perhaps the most serious of the three flaws could have resulted in attackers gaining control of the device via a tactic called PIN brute forcing.
It’s worrying news for those who use a Fire TV Stick but luckily a patch has been pushed out before any customers have been targeted. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your device is fully updated to the latest OS version to stop anything sinister from happening in the future.
"The vulnerabilities presented have been responsibly disclosed to the vendor through their Bug Bounty program," Bitdefender explained. "Amazon has released fixes for these issues on Fire TV devices and the Fire TV remote app, and the company has no evidence that this issue has been used against customers. Bitdefender has been working closely with the Amazon Fire TV team through all stages of vulnerability disclosure. We would like to extend our thanks for the prompt response time, communication, transparency and escalation."
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Your Stick should have received the upgrade automatically but to make sure it is running the latest software simply navigate to Settings > My Fire TV > About and select Check for System Update . If there is an update available, you can install it right away. Your system will restart once it is done downloading.
Speaking about the latest release an Amazon spokesperson said: 'Security is foundational to how we design devices, features, and experiences. We have released fixes for this issue on Fire TV devices and the Fire TV remote app. We have no evidence that this issue has been used against customers, and we appreciate the work of researchers who help bring potential issues to our attention.”