The update warning has now been issued for millions of Samsung Galaxy users
Samsung has just released details of its September firmware update for Galaxy users, which is more complicated than usual, including some critical updates that are missing. As always, you can expect this to start rolling out to the newer flagships immediately.
Samsung’s release combines a raft of wider Android fixes as well as those only for his own devices. The highlight of the Android security bulletin is CVE-2024-32896, which Google again warns “may be subject to limited, targeted exploitation.” The good news for Samsung users is that those who received the August update already had this patch — it was behind the CISA update that was now warning of the end of last month. Those without a monthly update plan will receive the patch during the next update.
But the bad news for Galaxy users is that—once again—they’re a month behind when it comes to critical third-party hardware updates. This month, a critical Qualcomm update from last month’s Android security bulletin (CVE-2024-23350) arrives on Samsung devices, while the two critical Qualcomm updates this month (CVE-2024-33042 and CVE-2024 -33052) are absent.
Samsung warns that “some patches received from chipset vendors may not be included in this month’s security update package. They will be included in the upcoming security update packages once the patches are ready to be delivered.” Assuming these are related to Samsung devices, we can expect them next month.
The other headline from this month’s Android update will be the removal of the Showcase app from devices, which I reported on back in August. This was presented by a security vendor as a serious threat, but dismissed by Google as a non-issue for users.
From the perspective of Galaxy users, nothing particularly stands out among the 23 Samsung-specific fixes of high but mostly moderate severity. That said, we’ve started to get used to some fixes that seem more serious than we first thought shortly after release. And it’s worth nothing that Samsung also warns users that “some items included in the Samsung Android Security Update cannot be disclosed at this time.”
Galaxy users will be more worried about the One UI 6.1.1 update than the regular fixes. As SamMobile explains, the other bad news is that while the update “debuted with the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6 and was expected to roll out to other devices last month. However, Samsung has not released the update yet.”
In the meantime, make sure you apply the update immediately after downloading it to your device. There have been enough Android and Samsung vulnerability warnings in recent months that updating early is a reasonable priority.
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