The security and privacy improvements made to Google’s Android 15 set it apart from the iPhone. These include on-device threat monitoring in real-time for malware and even fraudulent calls, which raises the standard for protecting our cellphones. As central security monitoring moves to the periphery, Apple actually has some catching up to do.
The security and privacy improvements made to Google’s Android 15 set it apart from the iPhone. These include on-device threat monitoring in real-time for malware and even fraudulent calls, which raises the standard for protecting our cellphones. As central security monitoring moves to the periphery, Apple actually has some catching up to do.
Even though CVE-2024-43767 only has a high-severity rating, we have previously observed that vulnerabilities of this kind get worse after their initial appearances, with active attack alerts appearing a while after the original bulletins.
Although a few other fixes also impact Android 15 devices, mostly Pixels and a few models from other OEMs, that fix is the most notable of December’s bulletin. Not Samsungs, though. With the company’s One UI 7 lagging far behind, Galaxy owners have yet to receive their Android 15 beta.
Google claims that other Android partners “are notified of all issues at least a month before publication,” and that in order to exploit CVE-2024-43767, “platform and service mitigations are turned off for development purposes or successfully bypassed.” Pixels will receive the full update whether or not they have upgraded to Android 15. It will not be until each OEM releases its specific bulletins over the next several days that we will know which fixes are included.
Again, it is too soon to tell for sure if there are currently any active exploitations. None have been discovered so yet, which is a good relief given this update is calmer than those we have seen in recent months.
The December update contains several high-severity Qualcomm updates in addition to Google’s own. Samsung’s December security release will include this upgrade, at least for Android 14 and lower, however it is possible that chipset and other third-party fixes will be further postponed. We have not yet received confirmation that the Galaxy series has been patched for Qualcomm’s October zero-day.
As always, depending on the area and provider, Pixel owners should soon see the update available on their devices. The recommendation is to upgrade as soon as possible due to the high-severity fixes. And you can accomplish it with ease—again, in contrast to your Samsung competitors, at least until the early 2025 release of Samsung’s S25.
