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CERT-In has issued a high severity alert for Android users
Google has raised a major security flaw in Android this week and now the Indian government is warning users about the need to be careful.
Android users are having a busy week with not one but two major security alerts. The latest one is warning the smartphone users in India from the country’s government. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued a new security warning for millions of Android users with its latest bulletin dated August 7, 2024.
The team has explained that the latest issues can be exploited by attackers to gain sensitive information and execute arbitrary code on your phone.
Android Security Alert From CERT-In – What It Says
The new vulnerabilities affect Android versions 12, 12L, 13, and even all the phones running on Android 14 version. When you combine all these versions, the number of phones running in India will easily be in the high millions, and putting them under the high severity ranked alert is worth heeding for one and all.
CERT-In highlights that multiple vulnerabilities exist in Android due to flaws in the framework, system, kernel, ARM components, Imagination technologies, MediaTek components, Qualcomm components, and Qualcomm close-sourced components.
Which Android Phones Affected – Should You Worry?
Having these many chip makers on the affected list means, brands like Samsung, Realme, OnePlus, Xiaomi and Vivo have to be concerned about the issue, and make sure they release security patches for these vulnerabilities right away.
The good news is that, most of the phone brands have been notified about these issues, and the latest security patch has already been released, with all of them expected to get it done in the next few weeks. The alert comes just a few days after Google has released its August software update for eligible Pixel devices, starting from Pixel 6 series, helping them patch the zero-day security issues that were termed serious by Google’s security threat group.
Qualcomm has confirmed that a patch has been issued prior to the security bulletin was released. “For the issues mentioned, Qualcomm made fixes available to its OEMs in advance of the August Android Security bulletin. We encourage end users to apply security updates as they become available from device makers,” Qualcomm spokesperson shared the details with News18 Tech. We expect other vendors and brands to offer a similar update in the coming days.
