Google has issued a fresh warning to all Android users, recommending anyone with a smartphone powered by the operating system should update their software as soon as possible.

This happens when Google identifies possible bugs or flaws in Android that hackers could take advantage of to gain access to your phone or app data in all manner of worrying ways.

The tech giant has labelled one of the new vulnerabilities as “severe” and said it “could lead to remote code execution with no additional execution privileges needed”. Translated into plain talk, that means bad actors could in theory gain access to sensitive information on your device.

Reading through Google’s latest Android Security Bulletin is quite difficult given the technical lingo used. The best thing you can do is go to the settings app on your Android phone today and see if there’s a software update ready to install.

If you have a Google Pixel phone, it’s likely you’ll have one. Google pushes security updates to its own smartphones monthly, and usually first. If you own a Samsung, OnePlus, Honor, Oppo or Xiaomi phone, you may be waiting a little longer, as these and other Android manufacturers have to implement the security changes themselves before sending out the fix to phones.

It also depends on how old your phone is. The latest Samsung, Google and Honor phones offer seven years of software updates, but older devices don’t always stay up to date for that long. If you haven’t had a software update for a while, your phone might not be supported any more.

“It’s critical that all Android users update their devices immediately, as two critical security flaws are currently being exploited by criminals,” said Adam Boynton, Senior Security Strategy Manager EMEIA at software firm Jamf. “CVE-2024-43093 affects Android’s underlying framework while CVE-2024-50302 affects Android’s kernel.

“CVE-2024-43093 is the more severe flaw of the two as it allows cybercriminals to gain unauthorised access to ‘Android/data,’ ‘Android/obb,’ and ‘Android/sandbox’ directories and gain control over sensitive operations.”

It seems unlikely that you’ll be personally at risk given Google has successfully fixed the bug, but if you have a software update ready to go, it’s always best to install it. Android phone firms push these updates out for good reason, and it’s often fixes that keep your data safe, rather than bringing new features to your phone.

“Although this is a targeted attack, we strongly recommend that all users update their Android OS,” Boynton said. “Keeping all devices across every operating system is one of the most effective ways to safeguard against attackers.”