Security researchers from Neseso are sounding the alarm on a vulnerability they 've discovered Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in Samsung smart TVs that Samsung declined to fix Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability . The security flaw affects Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability Wi-Fi Direct , a Wi-Fi standard that enables devices to connect with each other without requiring a wireless access point . Smasung uses Wi-Fi Direct with its smart TVs to allow TV owners to connect to the TV via their phones , laptops , or tablets , directly , and not through the local access point . Neseso researchers claim Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability that Samsung has failed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability in the implementation of this standard , as Samsung TVs only use MAC addresses to authenticate users . Other vendors use more solid authentication systems based on a Push-Button or PIN . Because anyone can sniff and spoof MAC addresses , this vulnerability opens the user 's TV to getting hacked by anyone in the range of the TV 's Wi-Fi Direct coverage . `` Once connected , the attacker has access to all the services provided by the TV , such as remote control service or DNLA screen mirroring , '' Neseso researchers wrote in their report . The dangers are palpable for companies , as most have smart TVs in their offices , employee lounges , customer waiting rooms , or board rooms . Worse is that the Samsung smart TV Wi-Fi Direct feature is enabled by default every time the device boots up . Users are notified on screen when a whitelisted device connects to the TV via Wi-Fi Direct , but those warnings could be misinterpreted by TV owners , or missed altogether if nobody 's watching the TV . Contacted by Neseso in mid-March , Samsung answered it does n't view this feature as a security risk and declined to provide Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability a firmware update , telling Neseso they do n't view this issue as a `` security threat . '' Researchers tested their attack on Samsung UN32J5500 Firmware version 1480 , but say that other versions are most likely vulnerable Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability as well . There is currently no workaround for protecting against attacks via Wi-Fi Direct except turning off the feature every time you boot/reboot your device . Earlier this month , at the Security Analyst Summit 2017 , security expert Amihai Neiderman disclosed Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability about the presence of 40 zero-day vulnerabilities in Tizen , the operating system that runs on Samsung smart TVs . The flaws were all unpatched Vulnerability-related.PatchVulnerability at the time they were reported Vulnerability-related.DiscoverVulnerability .