Category: Android Security Update

Yesterday, T-Mobile started rolling out the June Android Security update to the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge on their network.  Today, Sprint has followed suit.  The update is build G930PVPU4BQF3 for the Galaxy S7 while the S7 Edge will be getting build G935PVPU4BQF3.  The update for either device comes in at just under 300MB in size and it is recommended that it be downloaded via Wi-Fi and that you have at 50% of battery left prior to trying to install it.

The release notes for the updates are somewhat generic in describing what is addressed.  The security is improved thank to the new Android Security patch level but there are also “device stability & improvements”.  There are also performance improvements but again, not specific is called out.  This is similar to the T-Mobile release yesterday which just indicated “various system improvements”.

There are reports from some Google Pixel owners that the July Android Security Update, which was released yesterday, is failing to install on their devices.  The issue appears to be rather discrete and not broadly impacting all Pixel owners.  The issue appears to be only on the 5″ model and only with build NKG47M.  That build is for T-Mobile and Project Fi.  The Pixel XL and other builds, at least for now, do not appear to be impacted.  I was able to install the same build on my Google Pixel XL, which is on Project Fi, without any issues.  That update was 70MB in size.

The issue is that the update simply will not install.  Users are prompted that the update is available and when they attempt to install it, they are given an error indicating that the update couldn’t be installed.  There is an option to try again but this appears to have no impact on the issue as it still will not install.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 continues to get incremental updates from both Samsung directly and carriers here in the United States.  AT&T has started rolling out updated firmware version N910AUCS2EQF1 which is fundamentally the June Android Security update that was released by Google earlier this month.  In fact, only security updates are listed in the release notes on the AT&T site for the device.

This update does not update the device to Android Nougat, an update that is likely never to happen officially given the age of the device and the expected release of the Note 8 this summer.  Indeed, it is because of the debacle of the Note 7 that the 4 is still getting regular updates more-or-less.

As expected with it being the first Monday of the month, Google has released the Android Security Update patches for June today.  Like the past few updates, this month’s patch consists of two patches, one dated June 1st and the other June 5th.  The first patch deals with broader issues with Android in general while the second patch is more driver or component specific.

Perhaps the best news in this month’s update is the fix of a long standing Bluetooth vulnerability within Android.  There are three specific fixes that are in this update which squelch the ability of malicious apps to elevate permissions.  This issue has actually be in Android since the KitKat days.  Yeah, a long time coming.

Google has released the April Android Security Update today for Nexus and Pixel devices but, and likely more interesting to readers, the update comes in the Android Nougat 7.1.2 release.  Nougat 7.1.2 has been in beta for several weeks know and is purely a maintenance build for devices.  There are a few  new features in the build but a lot of refinements on features already in the platform.  Perhaps the biggest news is the enablement of Fingerprint scanner swiping on the Nexus 5X and 6P.  There are also some new battery usage warnings for both devices.

Google has already released the full images and the OTA images for devices.  The release notes, however, outlining everything that has been addressed, have not been released at the time of this writing.  Remember that unless you are comfortable manually flashing your devices, you should wait until the OTA update rolls out from Google to your device automatically.

The March Android Security Update has been released for Nexus and Pixel devices and, the good news, the update is already rolling out to devices.  The update was officially released yesterday and has become the way of things, consists of two patches.  The first patch, dated March 1st, contains three critical patches and 8 high priority patches.  This patch is generally for all Android devices while the second patch, dated March 5th, has 8 critical patches and contains a whopping 21 high priority patches.  This update is mostly for Nexus and Pixel devices.

Like previous releases, this month’s security update has been released as a full factory image for those who want to flash their devices manually and so has the OTA patch to do an incremental update.  For those who want to wait until Google actually pushes it to your phone or tablet, you won’t have to wait long.