- A mysterious company called Numero LLC is taking control of some Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra devices after a factory reset
- This gives them full control over the phone and appears to prevent users from completing the setup process
- It’s not clear how this happened, and Samsung is reportedly doing little to help affected users
Bugs and hacking attempts are common dangers of smartphone ownership, but a rather more unusual danger is currently afflicting some Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra devices.
Android Authority has found several reports of Galaxy S22 Ultra users losing access to their phone after a factory reset, with a message saying “this Galaxy S22 Ultra is not private,” then detailing that it is instead managed by an unknown organization called Numero LLC.
Not only is that company name unknown, but these are all allegedly personal handsets that were not supplied through any organization.
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Being managed by Numero LLC means this mysterious company can monitor and control settings and data on the phone, so it’s a huge security concern, but it sounds like most of the affected users weren’t able to proceed with setup after this screen appeared anyway, leaving their phones essentially bricked.
A strange situation
It’s not entirely clear what’s going on here—Samsung offers a tool called Knox Mobile Enrollment, which lets companies automatically configure company phones to make it look like those devices have somehow been put through it by Numero LLC, but the question is how, since they’re not company phones.
Android Authority theorizes that a compromised reseller account is to blame, or alternatively, an unauthorized user may have exploited a vulnerability in Knox to change the company’s administration settings. But the second theory would have required physical access to the phones, which seems less likely.
Anyway, so far the people writing about this issue haven’t had much luck getting it fixed, with Samsung support directing them to the Knox technical team, who then send them back to Samsung support.
This doesn’t currently appear to be a widespread issue, but it’s a big issue for those affected, so hopefully Samsung will fix it soon – we’ve reached out to Samsung for comment and will update this article if we hear back.
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