Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Google Announces the Android, Nexus, and Pixel Security Bulletin for December 2017

With the announcement of Android Oreo Go, and the imminent release of the final build of Android 8.1 Oreo, it makes sense for Google to bundle this month's security patches in with them. We won't know if that is the case until they begin rolling out the OTA update for 8.1, but Google did just announce the Android, Pixel, and Nexus security bulletin for this month. These two security bulletins include close to 100 security patches that will be going out to supported devices in the near future.

The security patches included in this month's bulletin range from Android 5.1.1 all the way through Android 8.0 and also include a number of hardware based patches as well. All OEMs who roll out the December security update to their devices will receive a total of 47 security fixes for the base version of Android. Some OEMs such as Samsung and LG maintain a separate security bulletin for security fixes that are isolated to their devices due to the OEM ROM they have created.

This is also why Google announces two security bulletins each month as well. The first is the regular Android security bulletin and these patches will go out to supported Nexus and Pixel devices. Then the company announces their Pixel/Nexus security bulletin and it includes fixes that are specific to only the Nexus and Pixel devices that they are still maintaining. A lot of the patches from this month fix software components including the Framework, Media Framework, System, and the Kernel.

Both of these security bulletins also inform us about hardware specific software fixes with components from MediaTek, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm. As with each month's security update, Google has separated these into two different patch levels with one being labeled December 1st and the other being labeled December 5th. If you get the December 1st security update, then your device will have all the patches from it and previous security updates. However, then your device will be missing December 5th's security update until you get your next security update. Each OEM handles these differently so the update you receive from your smartphone manufacturer will vary.


Android Security Bulletin for December 2017 Pixel/Nexus Security Bulletin for December 2017



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