Google Patches Over 50 Vulnerabilities in Android With August 2020 Updates

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Google on Monday announced the August 2020 security updates for the Android operating system, with patches for a total of more than 50 vulnerabilities.

According to Google, the most serious flaw patched this month is a high-severity issue in the Framework component that can be exploited by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of an unprivileged process using a malicious file.

“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,” Google noted.

The 2020-08-01 security patch level addresses 14 high-severity vulnerabilities in the Framework, Media Framework, and System components.

The most serious Media Framework and System flaws allow a malicious application to elevate privileges without any user interaction.

The 2020-08-05 security patch level fixes 40 vulnerabilities in the AMLogic, Kernel, MediaTek, and Qualcomm components of Android.

The AMLogic vulnerability patched this month allows a local attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated permissions using a specially crafted file. In the kernel, Android developers fixed three high-severity bugs that can lead to information disclosure or privilege escalation.

In MediaTek components, there are five high-severity vulnerabilities that can be exploited for privilege escalation or to obtain information. All issues impact the multimedia processing driver.

Over 40 flaws have been patched in Qualcomm components — a majority in closed-source components. While most have been classified as high severity, half a dozen of them have been rated critical.

Google also announced that it has patched a handful of vulnerabilities that are specific to Pixel devices.

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

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