Last month, a dormant piece of software included on all Google Pixel smartphones was found to present a potential security vulnerability for owners of the devices. The company quickly said it would remove “Showcase.apk,” which was created years ago “for demo devices in Verizon stores and is no longer in use.” But should it ever be exploited, cybersecurity firm iVerify found that the software could make phones “accessible to hackers and ripe for man-in-the-middle attacks, code injection, and spyware.” The outbreak was enough for Palantir to implement a company-wide ban on Android devices.
At the time, Google told us it had “seen no evidence of any active exploitation,” and with today's publication of the Pixel monthly software updatewill get rid of Showcase.apk entirely. The release notes confirm that the September patch includes a fix to “remove third-party APKs to address a security vulnerability.”
Other than that, it's a very minor update, with improvements to stability and Wi-Fi performance for Google's new Pixel 9 range being the only notable highlight. More significant software updates are in store next month, when Google plans to roll out Android 15 to its devices. The major OS update was released to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) today, but it will be a few more weeks before it's ready for Pixel hardware.
