The December 2017 Android security patches that Google released this week resolve 47 vulnerabilities, including 10 rated Critical severity.
The patches affect a variety of platform components and were split in two packages, or security patch levels, as Google calls them. The first addresses 19 vulnerabilities while the second resolves 28 issues.
The 2017-12-01 security patch level resolves 6 Critical severity vulnerabilities and 13 High risk flaws, Google notes in a security bulletin.
The issues affect the framework (3 High risk elevation of privilege bugs), Media framework (5 Critical remote code execution, 2 High elevation of privilege, and 4 High denial-of-service bugs), and System components (1 Critical remote code execution, 1 High elevation of privilege, and 3 High information disclosure issues).
The 2017-12-05 security patch level addresses 4 Critical risk vulnerabilities and 24 High severity issues.
The vulnerabilities were found in Kernel components (4 High elevation of privilege bugs), MediaTek components (3 High elevation of privilege flaws), NVIDIA components (3 High elevation of privilege issues), Qualcomm components (3 Critical remote code execution and 6 High elevation of privilege flaws), and Qualcomm closed-source components (1 Critical and 8 High flaws of undisclosed type).
Devices updated with the 2017-12-01 or later patch level are safe from all issues associated with the 2017-12-01 security patch level. The security patch levels of 2017-12-05 or later, on the other hand, resolve the issues associated with all previous patch levels as well.
Along with the Android security bulletin for December 2017, Google announced a separate set of security updates for Nexus and Pixels devices, meant to address vulnerabilities and bring functional improvements to supported Google devices.
As part of this month’s set of patches, Google resolved a total of 48 issues in Media framework, Broadcom, Kernel, MediaTek, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm components, as well as in Qualcomm closed-source components.
Most of the resolved vulnerabilities were elevation of privilege bugs, but Google also addressed DoS and information disclosure bugs. The vast majority of the issues were Moderate severity, except for a Critical bug in Qualcomm closed-source components and a High severity issue in Kernel components.
All supported Nexus and Pixel devices will receive these patches as part of the 2017-12-05 security patch level.
Related: Google Patches Critical Bugs in Android
Related: Google Patches Critical Android Flaws With October 2017 Updates