Security Experts:

Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Mobile & Wireless

Google Patches Critical Vulnerability in Android

Google this week released its first set of security patches for Android in 2019, with fixes for more than two dozen vulnerabilities. 

The most important of the security bugs is CVE-2018-9583, a Critical remote code execution vulnerability addressed in System and included in the 2019-01-01 security patch level. 

Google this week released its first set of security patches for Android in 2019, with fixes for more than two dozen vulnerabilities. 

The most important of the security bugs is CVE-2018-9583, a Critical remote code execution vulnerability addressed in System and included in the 2019-01-01 security patch level. 

A total of 13 security issues were addressed as part of this patch level, with only two components impacted, namely Framework and System. 

The only flaw that was addressed in Framework was an elevation of privilege issue. Tracked as CVE-2018-9582, it features a High severity rating and impacts Android versions 8.0, 8.1, and 9. 

All of the remaining 12 vulnerabilities impact System: 1 Critical remote code execution bug, 4 High risk elevation of privilege issues, and 7 High severity information disclosure vulnerabilities. Impacted Android versions include 7.0, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 8.0, 8.1, and 9.

The second part of Google’s new set of security fixes, the 2019-01-05 security patch level, addresses 14 vulnerabilities in Kernel components, NVIDIA components, Qualcomm components, and Qualcomm closed-source components. 

Most of these security bugs feature a High severity rating, except for CVE-2018-11847, a Critical bug addressed in a Qualcomm closed-source component. Most of the flaws were elevation of privilege issues.

According to Google, the most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow local malicious applications to execute arbitrary code within the context of a privileged process.

Also this week, Google released a security update for Pixel/Nexus devices, to address two Moderate risk vulnerabilities in Kernel components. Tracked as CVE-2018-13098 and CVE-2018-13099, both bugs are information disclosure issues. 

The Pixel Update Bulletin—January 2019 also includes a functional patch for Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL devices, meant to improve the audio quality when recording videos. 

Related: Android 9 Brings Significant Security Advancements

Related: Google ASPIRE to Boost Android Security and Privacy

Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join this webinar to learn best practices that organizations can use to improve both their resilience to new threats and their response times to incidents.

Register

Join this live webinar as we explore the potential security threats that can arise when third parties are granted access to a sensitive data or systems.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Vulnerabilities

Less than a week after announcing that it would suspended service indefinitely due to a conflict with an (at the time) unnamed security researcher...

Application Security

Drupal released updates that resolve four vulnerabilities in Drupal core and three plugins.

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

Vulnerabilities

Apple has released updates for macOS, iOS and Safari and they all include a WebKit patch for a zero-day vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-23529.

Cloud Security

VMware vRealize Log Insight vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to take full control of a target system.

Application Security

A CSRF vulnerability in the source control management (SCM) service Kudu could be exploited to achieve remote code execution in multiple Azure services.

IoT Security

Lexmark warns of a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability impacting over 120 printer models, for which PoC code has been published.

Vulnerabilities

GoAnywhere MFT users warned about a zero-day remote code injection exploit that can be targeted directly from the internet