Google posts June 2018 Android security patch and Pixel OTAs

Each month, Google releases security patches for Android devices. We’re only four days into June, and we’ve already got the latest patches for Android and the latest OTAs for Pixel and Nexus devices.

However, keep in mind that if you’re not using a Pixel or Nexus device — and are not using a custom ROM — these Android security patches don’t help you. It’s up to your OEM and your wireless carrier to test and distribute the patches to your device.

What kinds of fixes are in these updates? According to Google, the most severe problem that’s addressed with the June patches is a critical security vulnerability in Media framework. Using a specially-crafted file, a remote hacker could execute arbitrary code within the context of a privileged process. That would obviously not be ideal, so these latest patches fix that hole.

Similar vulnerabilities are patched in the common Framework of Android, as well as the System. Google also discovered various issues within Qualcomm, LG, NVIDIA, and MediaTek components.

You can see the full list of patches here.

As for Google Pixel and Nexus devices, they get their own additional security patch upgrades as well as new entries in the list of available OTAs. You can see the list of security patches here, full list of factory images here, and the full list of OTA files here.

It can take companies anywhere from a few days to a few months (or never) to package and distribute the latest Android security updates, so there’s no telling when you’re device will see these patches. However, if you have an Essential Phone, you might see it incredibly fast.