FP Security Updates need to be more frequent

@Marta_Artigas
In a post, Google explicitly warns of a “critical” system gap
https://source.android.com/docs/security/bulletin/2023-08-01?hl=en

do we have to wait two month for a Fairphone update?

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did anyone come up with a precise statistic or details about exactly how many times (how many days) a fairphone of any version was up-to-date with its security updates and patchlevel? i can not remember that many situations where we have received the monthly security update still within that very month before the next update release from the month+1 first/fifth. anyone have any numbers? :unamused:

similar to … this and that many days without any incidents, deaths, deliberately unpatched and late security exploits… you get the idea.

I believe there is a changelog on the FP website with release dates. Based on that you can probably make some graphs.

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A least there is a Google Play system update with patch level “July 1st 2023”

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I think, the situation improved over the last couple of months after Fairphone managed to get Android 12 running. Let’s hope, the update to Android 13 will not take that long.

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Yes, you find that here: https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405858220945-Fairphone-4-OS-Release-Notes

According to that all the updates for the Android 12 based version so far:

2023-07-17 - FP4.SP2G.B.079
2023-06-05 - FP4.SP29.B.069
2023-05-08 - FP4.SP28.B.065
2023-04-07 - FP4.SP25.B.058
2023-03-03 - FP4.SP21.B.048
2023-02-01 - FP4.SP1Y.B.041

So one update each month. Not too bad. I expect an update in August as well.

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the time of the update is only one thing. the level of the update you are being offered is clearly the other half that needs to match. how many days did the FP4 for example really have a then-current security version level?

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As far I can see - every update provided the latest available security level for that update as well.

The only thing Fairphone could change is to schedule the updates a bit different - maybe 1 or 2 weeks later - so an update for a specific month includes also the security updates from Google in that month. For example: 2023-04-07 included the security updates from March and not April, because the April updates got released by Google just two days before that update. But overall, you get a security update every month.

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I’m at the pub at the moment so if the below makes no sense then just ignore it

Fairphone as an Android OEM gets access to the, let’s say September update, in August, so the surprising thing with the Fairphone 4 is that they have a full month to update their phone and they are still one month behind. It makes no sense IMO.

Sure, Android 13 is probably slowing that down. But I’d rather be up to date on the security updates than be up to date on feature updates.

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loseyourself is right, manufacturers get the information way before the date that’s shown to the users (it’s essentially just a label).

Android partners are notified of all issues at least a month before publication

Taken from
https://source.android.com/docs/security/bulletin/2023-07-01?hl=en

And in fact Fairphone has released the $MONTH-05 security patch level before the fifth of that month a handful of times in the past.

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Maybe Fairphone sends first the update to its beta testers and wait a bit to be sure there is no big trouble before sending it to all.

I’m a beta tester and I haven’t received anything so far this month.

Assuming they aren’t on vacation, I would assume they are stuck with an issue at the internal testing stage.

I am a beta tester too but on the FP3 and I received the security patch of August 2023. Don’t forget there are several groups for each model :wink:

It’s quite strange that the FP3 seems to be doing better when it comes to security patches compared to the FP4. NGL.

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Why? It’s Android in both cases, the fact the FP3 hardware has been released earlier than the FP4 one doesn’t change anything. It seems just the FP3 team is faster (or better staffed or whatever) than the FP4 team.

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It should relieve people who think a new shiny FP5 implies less often updates to the FP4. Up to now, it seems different teams work separately on different models.

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Or it’s Android 13 time and we will go into (heavily) delayed updates again :frowning:

I pray and hope that we won’t have another 3-4 month delay. Maybe the month of August is a rain-free month in Amsterdam and they just decided to go out in the sun?

At the very least they can release the ghost touch patch and/or the brightness patch before A13.

Maybe they will finally experience the screen dimming and proximity sensor issues and do something about it. :smiley:

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anyone care for the next best FP flagship product FP5 just yet security wise? we have ongoing android 11-13 exploits in the wild.

anyone read the news on the fairphone security team? duh.
why inventing and selling new microelectronics when you just cant cut it and cant deliver software updates instantly.

this is so pathetic. :frowning: