Google releases February 2019 security patch for Pixel devices, Essential Phone gets updated too

Google has started pushing out latest monthly Android security update for its Pixel smartphones and Pixel C tablet. On Monday, Google Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel, Pixel XL, and Pixel C devices got their latest February 2019 security patch along with bug fixes. Parallely, Essential has also rolled out the latest February 2019 security update for Essential Phone as well.

Google has also put up OTA images and factory images of the Android security update for Pixel devices. The changelog notes that there were 15 issues previously, but it didn’t get any report of customers being affected. Now, these issues have been fixed. Unlike previous patches, this one does not include any functional update.

“The most severe of these issues is a critical security vulnerability in Framework that could allow a remote attacker using a specially crafted PNG file to execute arbitrary code within the context of a privileged process. The severity assessment is based on the effect that exploiting the vulnerability would possibly have on an affected device, assuming the platform and service mitigations are turned off for development purposes or if successfully bypassed. We have had no reports of active customer exploitation or abuse of these newly reported issues,” noted Google on Android Security Bulletin.

At the same time, Essential has tweeted out about the update for Essential Phone. It has noted that Essential Phone’s February’s security patch is rolling out now, so users should keep an eye out.

A month ago, Google’s January 2019 Android security update brought fixes for a lot of issues and security vulnerabilities at the kernel and system level. Notably, the latest Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL also got enhanced audio quality while recording videos.