December in Samsung-land has been dominated by the long-awaited release of the One UI 7 beta—at least for some S24 owners. But the company has also just released a different update that will impact more S24 owners than the Android 15 preview. It’s critical you check your phone and install the update as soon as you can.
While Samsung’s December security update seemed lowkey, it included six critical fixes as part of Android’s monthly update (CVE-2024-38408, CVE-2024-43096, CVE-2024-43770, CVE-2024-43771, CVE-2024-49747, CVE-2024-49748), as well as a critical fix of Samsung’s own (CVE-2024-49415). The company warned users that left unpatched, this last memory vulnerability could risk remote code execution.
Per SammyFans, this update “has started rolling for Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus, and Galaxy S24 Ultra users… Those not participating in the [One UI 7] beta are receiving this stable security patch… The security update is currently available for the Galaxy S24 series in Korea and the company will soon expand it to more countries.” The update is already available for the Fold 6 and Flip 6 in Europe.
The most critical update in Samsung’s December release is the delayed Qualcomm fix from October, that was made released in Android’s November update but has only been formally released by Samsung this month. This doesn’t impact S24 phones.
The more exciting news for S24 owners is the raft of security updates we now know will come with One UI7. These include enhancements to the (now) default Maximum Restrictions, that include cellular network protections and, critically, the new Safe Install feature. Samsung says this “works alongside Auto Blocker to send a warning when a user attempts to download from an unauthorized source, alerting them of security risks and preventing unintentional sideloading on Galaxy devices.”
The news today that Zimperium has discovered another new threat targeting Android phones through sideloaded apps is all the explanation needed as to why Samsung is going the extra mile to protect its ecosystem, and close the gap to iPhone.
The same can be said for the new Knox Matrix, which links your trusted Samsung devices to better protect each one. This will make it more difficult to ditch Samsung for a Pixel or even iPhone device, and again helps close that gap.
The one thing S24s won’t be getting is Google’s seamless updates. We’ve been told this won’t appear until the S25 is released, and maybe only for new devices. That’s a shame, and means that today’s S24 owners will need to update their devices the more rudimentary way, with a longer restart as part of the process.
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