Android 12: Google fixes a critical security flaw, download the update quickly!

Google has just published its February 2022 Android security bulletin. The Mountain View firm explains that it has corrected a critical security flaw in particular. Once exploited, it allowed an attacker to remotely elevate their privileges, all without requiring user interaction.

Google has just deployed the February 2022 Android security update. In its official summary, the Mountain View firm has corrected a critical security flaw present in Android 12. This vulnerability, mentioned under the reference CVE-2021- 36975, could obviously result in “a local elevation of privileges without the need for additional execution privileges”.

The builder adds “that no user interaction is required” for operation. Furthermore, the company states that the severity rating of the flaw was based on its potential effects on an infected device. If Google does not provide more details on this vulnerability, our colleagues from The Register claim to have spotted a Android NFC source code changesuggesting that the flaw was in this technology.

Also read: Android 12 – Google should force all manufacturers to adopt Material You

This flaw allowed an attacker to elevate his privileges remotely

As usual, Google has arranged the various flaws identified according to the areas concerned. Thereby, the manufacturer has found five “High” severity flaws in the System component. In particular, it made it possible to raise the level of privileges while others made it possible to launch denial of service (DDoS) attacks on Android 10 and 11.

Five flaws were then fixed in the Media Framework, the most serious of them also allowing to raise the level of privileges. As per usual, vulnerabilities have also been discovered in Mediatek components, but also from Amlogic, Unisoc and Qualcomm. As you can imagine, the Google Pixel will be the first to receive this Android security update. No worries though, the patch should quickly arrive on smartphones from other manufacturers.

To manually check if the update is available, go to the settings of your device, then direction Software update. Note that the procedure may vary significantly depending on your version of Android or the overlay that equips your smartphone.

Source: Google