Motorola on Stagefright: New Phones Have Patch, Working on Updates for Current Phones (UPDATED)

With Google, Samsung, and LG all weighing in with their plans to address not only the Stagefright vulnerability, but also security going forward on Android, we reached out to Motorola to see what they plan to do. In short, like the rest of the manufacturers of the world, they take the security of their customers “extremely seriously.”

In a statement sent to Droid Life, Motorola said that all of their new phones announced last week “will have the StageFright patch integrated into the software.” The new Moto G (3rd gen) will get the patch “soon.” As for their current crop of phones, they have already begun “working to integrate, test, and deploy the patch” for “many” of the devices that recently saw updates to Lollipop. 

Here is the full statement:

“We take the security of our customers extremely seriously. We applaud Google’s efforts to work with the carriers and handset manufacturers to enhance security in the Android ecosystem, and we look forward to working with them to help make this happen.

All of our products announced last week will have the StageFright patch integrated into the software. We’ve also begun working to integrate, test and deploy the patch in many of our recent Lollipop upgrades for current products.  The patch will also be included in the M upgrade.”

Obviously, they didn’t provide us with any sort of exact time frame for release to phones like the current Moto X (2nd gen), DROID line, or older Moto G and E models. So far, though, Samsung and Google are about the only two to release patches.

Security on Android…good luck!

UPDATE:  Motorola has now posted a support page detailing their plans. Below, we have the full list of devices they plan to patch, when the testing will begin, and how you can temporarily protect yourself without the patch.

Here are the devices that will get updates:

• Moto X Style (patched from launch)
• Moto X Play (patched from launch)
• Moto X (1st Gen, 2nd Gen)
• Moto X Pro
• Moto Maxx/Turbo
• Moto G (1st Gen, 2nd Gen, 3rd Gen)
• Moto G with 4G LTE (1st Gen, 2nd Gen)
• Moto E  (1st Gen, 2nd Gen)
• Moto E  with 4G LTE (2nd Gen)
• DROID Turbo
• DROID Ultra/Mini/Maxx

When will your phone receive the patch?

We will begin delivering software to our carrier partners to test starting August 10th for the phones listed above. Many carriers have unique requirements that result in unique variants of software. As a result, there are over 200 variants of software that we are working to patch, test and deploy to our carrier partners for their testing and approval. We are prioritizing our deployments of the patch to the largest groups of consumers first and working closely with our carrier partners to make the patch available as soon as possible. We will update on our progress as more information becomes available.

As soon as a patch is ready you will see a notification on your phone to download and install the update. We encourage everyone to periodically check if they have the latest software by checking in Settings>About Phone>System Updates.

What can you do to temporarily protect your phone and stop MMS from automatically downloading?

• Messaging: go to Settings.  Uncheck “Auto-retrieve MMS.”
• Hangouts (if enabled for SMS; if greyed-out, no need to take action):  go to Settings > SMS. Uncheck auto retrieve MMS.
• Verizon Message+:  go to Settings > Advanced settings. Uncheck Auto-retrieve.  Uncheck “Enable weblink preview.”
• Whatsapp Messenger: go to Settings > Chat settings > Media auto-download.  Disable all video auto downloads under “When using mobile data,” “When connected on Wi-Fi” and “When roaming.”
• Handcent Next SMS:  go to settings>Receive message settings.  Disable auto retrieve.