Android security: Google's May update hits bugs with critical patches for Nexus, Pixel

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Android is fragmented and though I have an Android phone, one of the newest from Motorola the Moto Z Droid Play it is now one half day late on critical updates. Unlike Windows and Apple OSX updates, where all updates come from the software writer, all Android updates initially come from Google for its devices, the Nexus and Pixels. If you own those devices you need to check for updates if not set for auto update.

Because each vendor adds bloatware and software of their own to differentiate their phones from the others. But that means to get a critical update we need to wait for the phone manufacturer/vendor to adapt the patches to their version of the open source software called Android. IK remember waiting 18 months for Samsung to update my 2010 Samsung Tab 10 and Tab 7 to Ice Cream sandwich. A year and a half! Many older phones are no longer supported and at best a couple of years is expected to the life of today's smartphones.

So in a family of two adults and three teenagers they could be running five versions of Android. The father's or mother's will be the newest phones, (depending on who is the device set up guru)then their old phone is handed down to the other parent. Then the three teenagers will be handing down from oldest to youngest and theoretically that family could be running five different versions of Android and only the newest supported for patches by the vendor. That is called fragmentation of the OS across users.

Here is an excerpt and if you don't have Google phones/tablets then start looking for updates from your vendor under settings check for updates or in a subfolder from other than Moto Z droid phones.

 

Excerpt:

"Google's updates for Nexus and Pixel devices address critical bugs that could lead to remote code execution.

Google has released its May security bulletin for Android with patches available for Nexus and Pixel devices.

As with previous updates, the May security update for Android is split into two patch levels. The one called 2017-05-01 is the partial security patch level while 2017-05-05 is the complete security patch level.

Owners of supported Nexus and Pixel devices should receive the complete patch in an over-the-air update in the coming days, or they can get it directly from Google's developer site. Android OEMs have the choice of distributing either update to end users.

As Google revealed last week, the Nexus 6 and Nexus 9, which were released in November 2014, will no longer be "guaranteed" to receive security updates after October 2017. The newer Pixel and Pixel XL handsets lose that guarantee after October 2019.

Google last year documented exact timeframes for when each Nexus model would stop receiving new versions of Android. A new table on Google's device support page offers the same clarification for security updates."

That article with much more and the Google support tables can be found here:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/android-security-googles-may-update-hits-bugs-with-critical-patches-for-nexus-pixel/?loc=newsletter_small_thumb&ftag=TREc64629f&bhid=19724681974700635514865380622813