Google releases October 2017 Android Security Bulletin and Google Device Images

Google has released the October 2017 Android Security Bulletin. Partners have had access to the warnings in this month’s bulletin for at least a month.

The October bulletin has two security patch levels to provide Android partners with the flexibility to more quickly fix a subset of vulnerabilities that are similar across all Android devices.

• 2017-10-01: Partial security patch level string. This security patch level string indicates that all issues associated with 2017-10-01 (and all previous security patch level strings) are addressed.
• 2017-10-05: Complete security patch level string. This security patch level string indicates that all issues associated with 2017-10-01 and 2017-10-05 (and all previous security patch level strings) are addressed.

The most severe of these issues is a critical severity vulnerability in media framework that could enable a remote attacker using a specially crafted file to execute arbitrary code within the context of a privileged process. 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.

Alongside the bulletin, Google have released a security update to Google devices through an over-the-air (OTA) update. The Google device firmware images have also been released to the Google Developer site. Security patch levels of October 05, 2017 or later address all of these issues.

The tables below contains a list of security vulnerabilities, the Common Vulnerability and Exposures ID (CVE), the assessed severity, and whether or not Google devices are affected. 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 disabled for development purposes or if successfully bypassed.

Android and Google Service Mitigations

This is a summary of the mitigations provided by the Android security platform and service protections such as Google Play Protect. These capabilities reduce the likelihood that security vulnerabilities could be successfully exploited on Android.

• Exploitation for many issues on Android is made more difficult by enhancements in newer versions of the Android platform. All users are encouraged to update to the latest version of Android where possible.
• The Android security team actively monitors for abuse through Google Play Protect and warns users about Potentially Harmful Applications. Google Play Protect is enabled by default on devices with Google Mobile Services, and is especially important for users who install apps from outside of Google Play.

2017-10-01 security patch level—Vulnerability details

Framework

The most severe vulnerability in this section could enable a local malicious application to bypass user interaction requirements in order to gain access to additional permissions.

CVE	References	Type	Severity	Updated AOSP versions
CVE-2017-0806	A-62998805	EoP	High	6.0, 6.0.1, 7.0, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 8.0

Media framework

The most severe vulnerability in this section could enable a remote attacker using a specially crafted file to execute arbitrary code within the context of a privileged process.