NFC exploit used to hack Samsung Galaxy S3 running Android 4.0.4

Using a pair of zero day vulnerabilities, a team of security researchers from U.K.-based MWR Labs hacked into a Samsung Galaxy S3 phone running Android 4.0.4 by beaming an exploit via NFC (Near Field Communications).

The team -- Tyrone Erasmus, Jacques Louw, Jon Butler and Nils (yes, that Nils) -- carted off a $30,000 cash prize as part of the EuSecWest mobile Pwn2Own hacker contest.

According to Erasmus, the exploit was delivered via NFC, the short-range wireless technology allows the sharing of small payloads of data between an NFC tag and an Android-powered device.   The hackers exploited a weakness in the way NFC is implemented in the Galaxy S3 to deliver a malicious file that was automatically opened by the Android document viewer.