Though Samsung has been rolling out the December 2020 Android security update to its devices since last week, the company only now disclosed the contents of this release in detail. And as its latest security bulleting reveals, this new security patch level – dated December 1st, 2020 – fixes a handful of pretty ancient vulnerabilities that have apparently existed since Android 8.x Oreo days.
Fortunately, none of the newly patched holes fit the definition of critical security flaws. Those would be attack vectors allowing for privilege escalation and similar ruses. Instead, most of the said vulnerabilities ranged from low- to medium-risk ones, according to Samsung's classification, for posing a risk to limited (yet sensitive) user data such as device GPS information.
How long until the December 2020 security patch reaches your device?
The rollout of the latest security update for Galaxy devices is still in its early days and will surely take weeks until it reaches all of its targets As always, make sure to manually check for the package download if you're feeling impatient. To do so, go to the Software update section found near the bottom of the system Settings app's main menu, then tap the Download and install field on the next interface.
Alternatively, our firmware archives never sleep and are continuously updated with new system images containing the latest Samsung firmware. So anyone willing and able to flash the latest security patch onto their device manually can search them for a compatible firmware release. Unsure when exactly is your Galaxy smartphone or tablet meant to receive the new security patch, if ever?
