Big Android Makers Will Now Push Monthly Security Updates

The Stagefright bug has quickly frightened cell phone manufacturers into action.
Android Security Hole Found By Researcher
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The Stagefright bug has quickly frightened cell phone manufacturers into action. It's been just over a week since researchers alerted the public to the serious flaw that has been called the worst Android "bug ever discovered," and the major Android manufacturers have already taken concrete steps to fix it.

As of yesterday, Google will now roll out regular monthly over-the-air security updates to its devices. And so will Samsung. And LG.

"LG will be providing security updates on a monthly basis which carriers will then be able to make available to customers immediately. We believe these important steps will demonstrate to LG customers that security is our highest priority," an LG representative told WIRED today in an email.

Yesterday, Samsung announced a similar program in an blog post: "Samsung Electronics will implement a new Android security update process that fast tracks the security patches over the air when security vulnerabilities are uncovered. These security updates will take place regularly about once per month."

As for Google, its updates will be rolling out to its entire Nexus line. "The first security update of this kind began rolling out today, Wednesday August 5th, to Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 7, Nexus 9, Nexus 10, and Nexus Player," Adrian Ludwig, Lead Engineer for Android Security, and Venkat Rapaka, Director of Nexus Product Management wrote in a blog post.

The first updates from all three companies will address the Stagefright vulnerability, which would have allowed a hacker to gain access to your Android device simply by sending a malicious text message. Though the problem is easy to fix and Google had a patch ready when the news broke last week, getting it out to all of the fragmented Android ecosystem was another story. For most devices, Google depends on the individual phone manufacturers to push updates to their customers. The good news is the reaction to Stagefright was uncharacteristically swift. In addition to these new regular security update programs from Google, Samsung and LG, other major manufacturers such as HTC, Sony and Android One are reportedly sending Stagefright patches out to customers.

If you're not sure whether your device is vulnerable to Stagefright, the researchers who uncovered it released an app yesterday that can tell you.