It’s that time of the month again. For Pixel and Essential Phones, the latest Android security update is now available. The Android dev team has just posted a Pixel Update Bulletin for August. As usual, the update includes information on the functional improvements and security vulnerabilities that may be affecting the Pixel devices. Android device will soon receive 2019-08-01 patch levels. Do check the current Android version of your phone first. There is no list which Google devices are supported but expect the latest ones will have the latest patch level.
The new version delivers a security patch for some vulnerabilities recently discovered. Before the updates are out, partners were already notified of the said issues so they could also incorporate the changes. If you receive an OTA, simply accept the updates and install on your device. All Google devices should receive the 2019-08-01 patch level update soon.
Security patches for different vulnerabilities are released for affected components. Functional patches are for affected Google devices that have functionality issues. They’re not exactly related to security.
Essential has also announced the same August security update is now available for Open Market users. If your Essential Phone is on Open Market, you can check the update and install. Specifically, the security update will upgrade the Essential Phone to Android 9.0 Build PQ1A.190105.112.
As per the Android Security Bulletin published yesterday, the most problematic among the vulnerabilities found was the security vulnerability within the System component. What could happen is a remote attacker enabling a specially crafted PAC file that may execute arbitrary code. A phone user may not be aware of this because it’s done within the context of privileged access. Fortunately, there are no reports of known customer exploitation yet so there’s nothing to worry about. However, you are still encouraged to apply the latest update.
