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With Android 13 pretty much out of the way, Samsung seems to have picked up its normal pace for monthly security updates. The company is rapidly rolling out the January 2023 Android security patch to its eligible devices. Over the past few days, it released the latest security update for the Galaxy Note 10 series, Galaxy S21 series, and the Galaxy A73 5G. The new SMR (Security Maintenance Release) is now available for the original Galaxy Z Flip as well.
This month’s security update is rolling out to both 4G and 5G models of the Galaxy Z Flip. Samsung has begun the rollout in Europe. Users with the 4G model are getting the update in Italy with the firmware version F700FXXSAIVL3 (via). The same update for the 5G model is live in a host of European countries, including Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the UK. The updated Firmware version for this model is F707BXXS7IVL1.
Samsung should expand this rollout to more regions in the coming days, including the US. If you’re using the original clamshell foldable, go to the Software update menu in the Settings app and tap on Download and install to manually check for updates. You may also get a notification on your Galaxy Z Flip prompting you to download the update over the air (OTA). Simply tap on the notification and follow the on-screen instructions to update your foldable. Other eligible Galaxy devices, such as the Galaxy Z Fold 4, will also get the January security update soon.
The January 2023 update for Galaxy devices patches more than 70 vulnerabilities
Along with expanding the January SMR to the Galaxy Z Flip, Samsung today also published the contents of the new release. The latest security patch contains more than 70 vulnerabilities. The vast majority of those (over 50) are patches from Google’s Android Security Bulletin (ASB). These patches concern issues on Android OS and other partner components found in Android products. They affect the entire Android ecosystem. All ASB vulnerability patches for this month were rated “high-severity” by Google.
Apart from the ASB patches, Samsung’s January SMR also patches some Galaxy-specific vulnerabilities. Called Samsung Vulnerabilities and Exposures (SVE), these are privacy and security flaws in the Korean firm’s system components. They don’t exist on Android products from other brands. Samsung says it patched 20 SVE items this month, including a high-severity flaw that allowed arbitrary code execution. Most others were “moderate” issues affecting various system apps and components, including Secure Folder, Knox Service, NFC, and more.