The August SMR (Security Maintenance Release) has been rolling out to Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones since late July. The Galaxy S22, Galaxy S21, and Galaxy S20 phones were the first to receive the update. The Galaxy S20 FE joined the party last week. Following the initial rollout in Europe, the phone is now picking up the latest security patch stateside as well. This update doesn’t bring any new features or user-facing changes to the Galaxy S20 FE. It’s all about vulnerability fixes. Samsung has already revealed that the August SMR patches over 60 vulnerabilities, including one critical Android OS issue that allowed an attacker to remotely execute code on affected devices over Bluetooth. The latest release fixes over 30 other vulnerabilities on Android OS. Additionally, Samsung has patched 31 Galaxy-specific problems as well. These issues don’t exist on Android-powered devices from other brands. This means that the flaws reside in Samsung hardware and software. They affect several key components including App Lock, Samsung DeX, Knox VPN, Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi, and Dialer.
The Galaxy A33 5G is also getting the August security update
Along with the US Galaxy S20 FE, Samsung has today also released the August security update to the Galaxy A33 5G. The latter is a new mid-range smartphone launched earlier this year. It is picking up the August SMR in a few Asian countries including Hong Kong, Vietnam, and South Korea, SamMobile reports. The European version of the phone should also get the update soon. Samsung didn’t release the 5G mid-ranger in the US. The Galaxy A33 5G may also be getting some system stability improvements along with the aforementioned vulnerability fixes. As always, Samsung will roll out the August security update to its eligible devices over the air (OTA). Once available for your phone, you will get a notification for the same. You can tap on the notification to download the update. You can also manually check for updates from the Settings app. Simply scroll down to the Software update menu and tap on Download and install. If you don’t see any pending OTA updates, check again a few days later.
