Mobile devices Toolkit

Google offers update for Android security flaw

Stephen Shankland CNET News

Published: 04 Nov 2008 15:51 GMT

Google has begun distributing a patch to its Android mobile-phone operating system.

The first Android handset to launch — the T-Mobile G1 — began showing a message on Saturday, saying a system update was available and inviting users to choose whether to update then or later.

The patch is intended to fix a highly publicised security problem with Android's web browser, and make a few other minor changes.

The researchers who found the browser flaw — Charlie Miller, Mark Daniel and Jake Honoroff of Independent Security Evaluators — called the Android web-browser flaw serious, but Google said its severity was mitigated by Android's design, which restricts each program to its own area.

Earlier, Google appealed for what it called "responsible disclosure" of security vulnerabilities — in other words, a grace period to fix problems before they're made public to reduce the likelihood an attacker will get a chance to exploit a vulnerability. There's an age-old tension between companies that want to fix their products and security researchers who want to get the word out, in part because attackers are also trying to find the vulnerabilities.

Google didn't respond to a request for comment.

Credit: Google patches Android security flaw from CNET News