Google this week released security updates for Android to resolve numerous Critical remote code execution (RCE) and elevation of privilege (EoP) vulnerabilities in the platform.
Over 100 vulnerabilities were resolved in Android this month, split into two separate sets of patches. A total of 23 bugs were addressed with 2017-04-01 security patch level, including 6 Critical vulnerabilities, 9 rated High risk and 8 Moderate.
There were 6 Critical RCE issues affecting Mediaserver; High risk flaws such as EoPs in CameraBase, Audioserver, and SurfaceFlingerș Information disclosure in Mediaserver; and denial of service (DoS) vulnerabilities in libskia and Mediaserver.
The Moderate severity issues included EoP bugs in libnl and Telephony, along with Information disclosure vulnerabilities in Mediaserver, libskia, and Factory Reset. Overall, Google patched 15 flaws in Mediaserver this month, which proves once again that this is one of the most vulnerable components in Android, after the Stagefright bug was found in it almost two years ago.
The 2017-04-05 security patch level resolves a total of 79 vulnerabilities, 25 of which were rated Critical severity, 39 have a High rating, and 15 are considered Moderate risk, Google’s advisory reveals.
One of the most severe of these vulnerabilities was a RCE issue in Broadcom Wi-Fi firmware. Tracked as CVE-2017-0561 and found by Google Project Zero researcher Gal Beniamini, the issue impacts Nexus, Samsung, and smartphones from other vendors as well. Apple’s iOS was also impacted by the bug, and the company released an emergency fix for it earlier this week.
19 other Critical issues were addressed in various Qualcomm components and were released as part of Qualcomm AMSS security bulletins between 2014 and 2016 (a 20th vulnerability considered only High risk was also counted here in Google’s advisory).
The rest of the Critical flaws included RCE issues in kernel networking subsystem and Qualcomm crypto engine driver, along with EoP bugs in MediaTek touchscreen driver, HTC touchscreen driver, and kernel ION subsystem.
The remaining 38 High risk vulnerabilities in this patch level were mostly EoP bugs in kernel sound subsystem, and various drivers, but 2 RCE flaws (in v8 and Freetype), four information disclosure issues (in kernel memory and kernel networking subsystems, Qualcomm TrustZone, and Qualcomm IPA driver), and two DoS flaws (in kernel networking subsystem and Qualcomm Wi-Fi driver) were also resolved.
The 15 Moderate risk issues included EoP and information disclosure issues in various drivers from Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Nvidia (one EoP was addressed in HTC OEM fastboot command and one information disclosure was resolved in kernel media driver).
Related: No Prizes Awarded in Google’s Android Hacking Contest
