I own a relatively new (2025) Samsung TV. I kept getting weirdly targeted ads

A security researcher reports that a relatively new 2025 Samsung TV was delivering unusually targeted ads, prompting a firmware reverse-engineer effort that ran into AES-encrypted images and no accessible keys. Extracting keys would require disassembly and access to UART/JTAG, but the investigator claims to have escalated to a root shell on recent Samsung sets, calling the findings a set of zero-day implications. The thread notes that commonly advertised protections like Knox and an EL2 hypervisor are not present or effective on these models, and the researcher asked whether to publish a full write-up.

The discoveries center on extensive, built-in telemetry and surveillance capabilities: an always-on microphone, automatic content recognition, geo-positioning, network mapping, a dedicated targeted-ads service, four separate DRM modules, user-profile building, and broad telemetry sharing across Samsung and hundreds of partners. The combination of privileged firmware access and pervasive sensors creates a significant privacy surface and a supply-chain angle for attackers. The claims drew attention from the community and media outlets interested in coverage and raised practical questions about device ownership, remote telemetry control, and how to extract or audit firmware without destructive hardware access.