Google has released the July 2016 Android Security Bulletin. Partners have had access to the warnings in this month’s bulletin since June 6, 2016 or earlier.
The most severe of these issues is a Critical security vulnerability that could enable remote code execution on an affected device through multiple methods such as email, web browsing, and MMS when processing media files.
Interestingly, this bulletin defines two security patch level strings to provide Android partners with the flexibility to move more quickly to fix a subset of vulnerabilities that are similar across all Android devices.
- 2016-07-01: Partial security patch level string. This security patch level string indicates that all issues associated 2016-07-01 are addressed.
- 2016-07-05: Complete security patch level string. This security patch level string indicates that all issues associated 2016-07-01 and 2016-07-05 are addressed.
Alongside the bulletin, Google have released a security update to Nexus devices through an over-the-air (OTA) update. The Nexus firmware images have also been released to the Google Developer site. Source code patches for these issues will be released to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) repository in the next 48 hours.
The table below contains a list of security vulnerabilities, the Common Vulnerability and Exposures ID (CVE), their assessed severity and whether or not Nexus 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 successfully bypassed.
Security patch levels of 2016-07-01 or later must address the following issues.
[table style=”table-striped”]
| Issue | CVE | Severity | Affects Nexus? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remote code execution vulnerability in Mediaserver | CVE-2016-2506, CVE-2016-2505, CVE-2016-2507, CVE-2016-2508, CVE-2016-3741, CVE-2016-3742, CVE-2016-3743 | Critical | Yes |
| Remote code execution vulnerability in OpenSSL & BoringSSL | CVE-2016-2108 | Critical | Yes |
| Remote code execution vulnerability in Bluetooth | CVE-2016-3744 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in libpng | CVE-2016-3751 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Mediaserver | CVE-2016-3745, CVE-2016-3746, CVE-2016-3747 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in sockets | CVE-2016-3748 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in LockSettingsService | CVE-2016-3749 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Framework APIs | CVE-2016-3750 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in ChooserTarget service | CVE-2016-3752 | High | Yes |
| Information disclosure vulnerability in Mediaserver | CVE-2016-3753 | High | No* |
| Information disclosure vulnerability in OpenSSL | CVE-2016-2107 | High | No* |
| Denial of service vulnerability in Mediaserver | CVE-2016-3754, CVE-2016-3755, CVE-2016-3756 | High | Yes |
| Denial of service vulnerability in libc | CVE-2016-3818 | High | No* |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in lsof | CVE-2016-3757 | Moderate | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in DexClassLoader | CVE-2016-3758 | Moderate | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Framework APIs | CVE-2016-3759 | Moderate | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Bluetooth | CVE-2016-3760 | Moderate | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in NFC | CVE-2016-3761 | Moderate | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in sockets | CVE-2016-3762 | Moderate | Yes |
| Information disclosure vulnerability in Proxy Auto-Config | CVE-2016-3763 | Moderate | Yes |
| Information disclosure vulnerability in Mediaserver | CVE-2016-3764, CVE-2016-3765 | Moderate | Yes |
| Denial of service vulnerability in Mediaserver | CVE-2016-3766 | Moderate | Yes |
[/table]
Security patch levels of 2016-07-05 or later must address all of the 2016-07-01 issues as well as the following issues.
[table style=”table-striped”]
| Issue | CVE | Severity | Affects Nexus? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Qualcomm GPU driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-2503, CVE-2016-2067 | Critical | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in MediaTek Wi-Fi driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3767 | Critical | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Qualcomm performance component (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3768 | Critical | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in NVIDIA video driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3769 | Critical | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in MediaTek drivers (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3770, CVE-2016-3771, CVE-2016-3772, CVE-2016-3773, CVE-2016-3774 | Critical | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in kernel file system (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3775 | Critical | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in USB driver (Device specific) | CVE-2015-8816 | Critical | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Qualcomm components (Device specific) | CVE-2014-9794, CVE-2014-9795, CVE-2015-8892, CVE-2013-7457, CVE-2014-9781, CVE-2014-9786, CVE-2014-9788, CVE-2014-9779, CVE-2014-9780, CVE-2014-9789, CVE-2014-9793, CVE-2014-9782, CVE-2014-9783, CVE-2014-9785, CVE-2014-9787, CVE-2014-9784, CVE-2014-9777, CVE-2014-9778, CVE-2014-9790, CVE-2014-9792, CVE-2014-9797, CVE-2014-9791, CVE-2014-9796, CVE-2014-9800, CVE-2014-9799, CVE-2014-9801, CVE-2014-9802, CVE-2015-8891, CVE-2015-8888, CVE-2015-8889, CVE-2015-8890 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Qualcomm USB driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-2502 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Qualcomm Wi-Fi driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3792 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Qualcomm camera driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-2501 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in NVIDIA camera driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3793, CVE-2016-3794 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in MediaTek power driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3795, CVE-2016-3796 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Qualcomm Wi-Fi driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3797 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in MediaTek hardware sensor driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3798 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in MediaTek video driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3799, CVE-2016-3800 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in MediaTek GPS driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3801 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in kernel file system (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3802, CVE-2016-3803 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in MediaTek power management driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3804, CVE-2016-3805 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in MediaTek display driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3806 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in serial peripheral interface driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3807, CVE-2016-3808 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in Qualcomm sound driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-2068 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in kernel (Device specific) | CVE-2014-9803 | High | Yes |
| Information disclosure vulnerability in networking component (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3809 | High | Yes |
| Information disclosure vulnerability in MediaTek Wi-Fi driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3810 | High | Yes |
| Elevation of privilege vulnerability in kernel video driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3811 | Moderate | Yes |
| Information disclosure vulnerability in MediaTek video codec driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3812 | Moderate | Yes |
| Information disclosure vulnerability in Qualcomm USB driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3813 | Moderate | Yes |
| Information disclosure vulnerability in NVIDIA camera driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3814, CVE-2016-3815 | Moderate | Yes |
| Information disclosure vulnerability in MediaTek display driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-3816 | Moderate | Yes |
| Information disclosure vulnerability in kernel teletype driver (Device specific) | CVE-2016-0723 | Moderate | Yes |
| Denial of service vulnerability in Qualcomm bootloader (Device specific) | CVE-2014-9798, CVE-2015-8893 | Moderate | Yes |
[/table]
Android and Google Service Mitigations
This is a summary of the mitigations provided by the Android security platform and service protections such as SafetyNet. 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. We encourage all users to update to the latest version of Android where possible.
- The Android Security team actively monitors for abuse with Verify Apps and SafetyNet, which are designed to warn users about Potentially Harmful Applications. Verify Apps is enabled by default on devices with Google Mobile Services, and is especially important for users who install applications from outside of Google Play. Device rooting tools are prohibited within Google Play, but Verify Apps warns users when they attempt to install a detected rooting applicationâ€â€no matter where it comes from. Additionally, Verify Apps attempts to identify and block installation of known malicious applications that exploit a privilege escalation vulnerability. If such an application has already been installed, Verify Apps will notify the user and attempt to remove the detected application.
- As appropriate, Google Hangouts and Messenger applications do not automatically pass media to processes such as Mediaserver.
Full details of the July 2016 Android Security Bulletin is available here.
