50 Shades of Support: A Device-Centric Analysis of Android Security Updates
Abbas Acar
Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium 2024 · Day 1 · Android & IoT Security
Android, the world's most popular mobile operating system with over three billion active devices, faces a persistent challenge in delivering timely and consistent security updates to its vast user base. This talk, "50 Shades of Support: A Device-Centric Analysis of Android Security Updates," presented by Abbas Acar at the NDSS Symposium, delves into the intricate and often irregular landscape of Android security update distribution. While the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) has introduced measures like **Security Patch Levels (SPLs)** to improve traceability, the actual rollout to end-users remains fraught with delays and inconsistencies. Previous research, often limited to flagship devices or short timeframes, has painted an incomplete picture, largely attributing issues to **fragmentation**.