The StageFright vulnerability made a lot of OEMs panic because of the possible attacks. Good thing though that this problem was sighted early on so phone makers, headed by Google, quickly prepared their own fixes. The likes of Samsung, LG, and Sony announced that they will be rolling out monthly security updates. That’s good customer service, making sure that device owners are free from any possible attacks.
However, it’s only Google who has kept the promise so far. No word yet from Samsung or LG about the said security updates. We can only assume that they’re not yet ready but a statement by HTC USA President Jason Mackenzie made sense. Over on Twitter, he was asked why the company didn’t commit or announce anything about such updates for StageFright. He simply said:
“Because commitment to this is not realistic. In order to push an update you have to get carrier approval.”
How unrealistic? The process usually is before an update is pushed to a device, carrier must give its approval. A new Android version comes from Google and then to manufacturer for some tweaking and then to mobile carriers. Some carriers take some time in approving a firmware so it then takes long before it reachers the consumers.
He’s right and maybe that’s why both LG and Samsung haven’t pushed out any security updates yet. It’s obvious why Nexus phones receive such first because it’s from Google. As for other manufacturers, still no word from them. We just hope that security fixes will be released soon enough because StageFright 2.0 has arrived.
HTC is known for being honest and transparent. It’s humble enough to say that numbers are not doing good and that it has plans for monetization. It’s no different these days when the President himself said they are “leading in terms of transparency on updates and providing them”. He was presented the fact the Samsung and LG committed to it but Mackenzie only said “let’s see”. Obviously, whoever asked the question doesn’t know what’s happening and that the two companies he mentioned haven’t rolled out anything new yet.
We’re still curious though. There was no mention if and when HTC will finally release a StageFright vulnerability patch. I guess we’ll just have to wait for the Taiwanese company to be transparent again and make an official announcement.
VIA: Android Headlines
SOURCE: Jason Mackenzie
