A few days into April, Samsung‘s Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 foldables are already receiving the latest security update in the US. The Korean firm has released the April 2023 Android security patch for the two devices stateside before other markets. The Galaxy S23 series picked up the new SMR (Security Maintenance Release) along with a big camera update last week. That release has yet to reach the US, though.
As of this writing, the April SMR is available for the factory-unlocked variants of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 in the US. The update is rolling out for units on T-Mobile’s network with the firmware build numbers F936U1UES2CWC9 and F721U1UES2CWC9, respectively (via). Samsung should soon expand the rollout to other networks and also cover carrier-locked units with the latest security patch. Users outside the US can also look forward to receiving the April SMR in the coming days.
The April security update patches dozens of flaws in Galaxy devices
This update doesn’t contain any notable goodies for users. However, there are plenty of security fixes here. Samsung has already revealed that the April SMR patches more than 70 vulnerabilities in Galaxy devices. Around 50 of those are Android OS flaws patched by Google and other partner vendors. Google labeled four issues as “critical” and 46 others as “high-severity”. One more issue was labeled “moderate”. The most severe Android OS flaws patched this month allowed remote code execution with no additional execution privileges needed.
The remaining patches (23) are for Galaxy-specific issues. These flaws don’t exist in Android products from other brands. Samsung patched at least one critical Galaxy flaw that allowed local attackers to access protected data. It also patched several other issues of varying severity in Exynos baseband, Telephony, Smart suggestions, Exynos Fastboot USB Interface, and more system components. On top of all this, the April SMR for Galaxy devices contains app security updates for Samsung Account, Camera, and Galaxy Store as well.
All of these security patches will soon reach other eligible Galaxy smartphones and tablets. As said earlier, Samsung has already released the April SMR for the Galaxy S23 series. That update isn’t available in the US yet, but it’s just a matter of time now. You should get a notification once a new update reaches your Galaxy device. As usual, you can also open the Settings app, go to the Software update menu, and tap on Download and install to check for updates manually.
2023-04-04 15:07:19