“Just as Google is coming under fire for publicizing a Windows bug two days before Microsoft released a fix, the company is now in the crosshairs because of its approach towards updating its own software,” Peter Bright reports for Ars Technica.
“Not for the first time, a bug has been found in the WebView component of Android 4.3 and below. This is the embeddable browser control powered by a version of the WebKit rendering engine used in Android apps,” Bright reports. “Android 4.4 and 5.0, which use Blink rather than WebKit for their WebView, are unaffected. But by Google’s own numbers, some 60 percent of Android users are using 4.3 or below.”
“The normal procedure would be to report the bug to Google, and for Google to develop a fix and publish it as part of Android Open Source Project release. But, writes Tod Beardsley, developer of the Metasploit security testing framework, that’s not what happened this time. The Android security team was notified of the problem, and the response was, ‘If the affected version [of WebView] is before 4.4, we generally do not develop the patches ourselves, but welcome patches with the report for consideration. Other than notifying OEMs, we will not be able to take action on any report that is affecting versions before 4.4 that are not accompanied with a patch,'” Bright reports. “Google will tell OEMs about the problem, but has no interest in fixing it.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Fragmandroid.
Of note: iOS 8 now powers 68% of iPhones and iPads – January 7, 2015
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Martin B.” and “Sid” for the heads up.]
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