Samsung is truly the number-one phone brand in the Android ecosystem when it comes to software updates. It releases software updates for dozens of phones and tablets every month. Samsung says the next update is important in terms of security.
Samsung's August 2024 security patch is important because a dangerous vulnerability is patched
In June 2024, it was reported that Android phones and tablets were affected by a critical vulnerability (CVE-2024-32896). Back then, Google was forced to immediately release the second software patch of the month. Therefore, many people assumed that the vulnerability only affected Pixel devices. However, the truth is not as it appears to be. It appears that all Android devices are affected. Therefore, Samsung has now decided to release the patch without waiting until Android 15 is released.
The vulnerability CVE-2024-32896 is extremely high risk and will be patched with an upcoming update. Samsung confirmed to Forbes that an update will be released for Galaxy phones and tablets next month.
The US government has issued a directive to federal employees to update Pixel devices by July 4, 2024 or stop using them. Security-focused GrapheneOS developers have revealed that there is another critical vulnerability (CVE-2024-29745) affecting all Android devices. However, phone companies have not yet been able to fix it.
What else is in the August 2024 update?
With the August 2024 update, Samsung is expected to bring some major camera improvements to the Galaxy S24 series. However, Samsung could focus on bringing the new Galaxy AI features introduced with One UI 6.1.1 to more Galaxy devices instead of camera fixes. We have to wait and see which areas Samsung will focus on with the next update.
In the next few months, Samsung will release the first beta of One UI 7.0 based on Android 15 for the Galaxy S24 series and many other high-end Galaxy devices. One UI 7.0 stable will be released to eligible Galaxy devices starting later this year.