Google this week released a set of security patches for Android, to address over 50 vulnerabilities in the mobile operating system.

The most severe of the security bugs is a critical issue in Media framework that could be exploited by remote attackers to execute arbitrary code within the context of a privileged process, with the help of a specially crafted file. 

A total of four Critical flaws were addressed in Media framework this month, along with three High severity bugs. The patches were included in the 2018-12-01 security patch level along with fixes for two High risk vulnerabilities in Framework and 8 flaws (two Critical and 6 High severity) in System, for a total of 17 issues. 

Of the six Critical bugs addressed in this security patch level, five were remote code execution vulnerabilities and one was an information disclosure issue. The resolved High risk flaws included elevation of privilege, information disclosure, and remote code execution bugs. 

The second part of Android’s December 2018 update, the 2018-12-05 security patch level, fixes 36 vulnerabilities. 7 High risk bugs impacted System and HTC, Kernel, and Qualcomm components, while the remaining 29 (5 Critical and 24 High severity) were addressed in Qualcomm closed-source components. 

A separate software update was released for the Pixel/Nexus devices, to address a Moderate risk vulnerability in Qualcomm components. 

The update also includes a large number of functional patches, which address issues that are not related to security. This month, the update improves the performance of pattern unlock, memory, camera, and audio, along with other functionality of the Google devices. 

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