Since we had a number of those security exploits surface over the summer, Google, Samsung, HTC, LG and a few other manufacturers have decided to roll out monthly security updates that will address exploits like the Stagefright one, which affected just about every Android device. Google rolled out their December security update with the Android 6.0.1 update earlier this week. HTC then followed with the One A9, and now Samsung is detailing their December security update that should be rolling out shortly. It’s great to see these manufacturers taking security updates seriously. Something that should have been done a long time ago.
The December update includes all of the fixes that Google addressed in their December update. A few of which had already been pushed out to their devices, and thus not available in this update, obviously. They also mentioned that some exploits were fixed, but cannot be disclosed at this time. That’s mainly to protect their customers who have not received the update just yet. A bit annoying to see that in a changelog, but it makes plenty of sense.
Samsung’s security updates include the Galaxy S5, S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, Galaxy Note 4, Note 5, Note Edge, Galaxy Tab S and Tab S2. Essentially of their flagships from 2014 and later. It’s great to see that Samsung is updating their older devices as well, something that usually gets forgotten. If you’re interested in the full update for December, you can head to the source link down below for all of the technical details from Samsung.
The update should start rolling out pretty soon. We’d expect to see it hitting unlocked and carrier free variants first. With the carrier variants coming a bit later. As these updates do still need to go through the carriers testing phase before they can be rolled out to devices on their network. And the reason for that is pretty obvious, they want to be sure nothing is going to damage their network. As some updates in the past have (maybe not Samsung, but some OTA’s have). We’ll be sure to let everyone know once the update begins to roll out.