Google Releases February Android Security Update for Pixel, Nexus Devices

Google has released its monthly Android security update for the month of February for its Pixel and Nexus devices. The company however was second to rollout the security update as Sony released the update to its Xperia devices last week. Similar to previous releases, Google's February Android security update focuses on fixing security issues in the operating system.

The February security update includes two patch levels, as per Google, the first was released on February 1 and it fixes critical security vulnerability that could enable remote code execution on an affected device through media files. The second patch level string was released on February 5 which fixes the rest of issues. Google adds that supported devices will receive a single OTA (over-the-air) update with the February 5 2017 security patch level.

The latest security bulletin for February fixes eight critical issues while 18 issues are rated as high severity, and nine issues are rated as moderate. Some of the critical security vulnerabilities fixed in the update by Google include remote code execution vulnerability in Surfaceflinger, remote code execution vulnerability in Mediaserver, remote code execution vulnerability in Qualcomm crypto driver, elevation of privilege vulnerability in kernel file system, elevation of privilege vulnerability in Nvidia GPU driver, elevation of privilege vulnerability in kernel networking subsystem, elevation of privilege vulnerability in Broadcom Wi-Fi driver, and vulnerabilities in Qualcomm components among others.

The February Android security update changes build numbers of the devices including the Pixel and Pixel XL which will receive update with NOF26V build. The Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X will receive an update with build number N4F26O while Nexus 6 will receive update with NBD91Y. The Nexus 9 and Nexus Player will receive update with build N4F26Q and NMF26X respectively.

Google says that OEMs were notified of the issues in the latest bulletin last month and source code patches for these issues have been released to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) repository.