Google this week released its first set of security patches for Android in 2019, with fixes for more than two dozen vulnerabilities.
The most important of the security bugs is CVE-2018-9583, a Critical remote code execution vulnerability addressed in System and included in the 2019-01-01 security patch level.
A total of 13 security issues were addressed as part of this patch level, with only two components impacted, namely Framework and System.
The only flaw that was addressed in Framework was an elevation of privilege issue. Tracked as CVE-2018-9582, it features a High severity rating and impacts Android versions 8.0, 8.1, and 9.
All of the remaining 12 vulnerabilities impact System: 1 Critical remote code execution bug, 4 High risk elevation of privilege issues, and 7 High severity information disclosure vulnerabilities. Impacted Android versions include 7.0, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 8.0, 8.1, and 9.
The second part of Google’s new set of security fixes, the 2019-01-05 security patch level, addresses 14 vulnerabilities in Kernel components, NVIDIA components, Qualcomm components, and Qualcomm closed-source components.
Most of these security bugs feature a High severity rating, except for CVE-2018-11847, a Critical bug addressed in a Qualcomm closed-source component. Most of the flaws were elevation of privilege issues.
According to Google, the most severe of these vulnerabilities could allow local malicious applications to execute arbitrary code within the context of a privileged process.
Also this week, Google released a security update for Pixel/Nexus devices, to address two Moderate risk vulnerabilities in Kernel components. Tracked as CVE-2018-13098 and CVE-2018-13099, both bugs are information disclosure issues.
The Pixel Update Bulletin—January 2019 also includes a functional patch for Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL devices, meant to improve the audio quality when recording videos.
Related: Android 9 Brings Significant Security Advancements
Related: Google ASPIRE to Boost Android Security and Privacy
Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.
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