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Our security preview releases provide early access to Android Security Bulletin patches prior to the official disclosure. Our current security preview releases provide the current revision of the November 2025 and December 2025 patches for the Android Open Source Project. We recommend enabling this.

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in reply to GrapheneOS

The only difference between our regular releases and security preview releases are the future Android Security Bulletin patches being applied with any conflicts resolved. The downside of security preview releases is we cannot provide the sources for the patches until the official disclosure date.
in reply to GrapheneOS

The delay for being able to publish the sources is why we're now going through the significant effort of building 2 variants of each release. Our most recent 3 releases have both a regular and security preview variant:

2025092500 and 2025092501
2025092700 and 2025092701
2025100300 and 2025100301

in reply to GrapheneOS

You can enable security preview releases via Settings > System > System update > Receive security preview releases.

Our plan is to keep it off-by-default with a new page added to the Setup Wizard which will have it toggled on as a recommendation. We'll prompt users on existing installs to choose.

in reply to GrapheneOS

We're maintaining the upcoming Android security patches in a private repository where we've resolved the conflicts. Each of our security preview releases is tagged in this private repository. Our plan is to publish what we used once the embargo ends, so it will still be open source, but delayed.
in reply to GrapheneOS

The new security update Android is using provides around 3 months of early access to OEMs with permission to make binary-only releases from the beginning. As far as we know, GrapheneOS is the first to take advantage of this and ship the patches early. Even the stock Pixel OS isn't doing this yet.
Questa voce è stata modificata (3 settimane fa)
in reply to GrapheneOS

During the initial month, many patches are added or changed. By around the end of the month, the patches are finalized with nothing else being added or changed. Our 2025092500 release was made on the day the December 2025 patches were finalized, but we plan to ship the March 2026 patches earlier.
in reply to GrapheneOS

Previously, Android had monthly security patches with a 1 month embargo not permitting early releases. For GrapheneOS users enabling security preview releases, you'll get patches significantly earlier than before. We'd greatly prefer 3 day embargoes over 3 month embargoes but it's not our decision.
in reply to GrapheneOS

Security preview releases currently increment the build date and build number of the regular release by 1. You can upgrade from 2025100300 to 2025100301 but not vice versa. For now, you can switch back to regular releases without reinstalling such as 2025092701 to 2025100300, but this may change.
in reply to GrapheneOS

So what happens, if someone installs GrapheneOS, enables this option and request the source code for a GPLv2 licensed kernel patch? I mean, GPL forces you to provide the sources code.

Then you can either comply and hand out source code, which is still under an embargo, or your right to distribute Android kernels are void.
Both options seem to be bad.

in reply to Felix

@dideldum There are no Linux kernel patches in the Android Security Bulletin YYYY-MM-01 patch levels. Our security preview releases have exactly the same kernels as the regular releases. There's no reason to make a source code request since it's already published. The security preview releases are identical to the regular releases made alongside them with the exception of having the Android Security Bulletin AOSP patches for future months applied. Shipping those early is fully permitted now.
in reply to GrapheneOS

@dideldum We're not doing anything that's not fully permitted. We're doing exactly what is documented in the Android Security Bulletin previews for OEM partners. We're following the rules including listing the CVEs which were patched without giving any further details. If people reverse engineer it, that's not a violation and we can refer to what other people figured out externally. Similar, if the same issues are publicly patched elsewhere, we can use those patches in our regular releases.
in reply to GrapheneOS

@dideldum GrapheneOS closely follows along with the upstream Linux kernel.org LTS releases via the Android GKI LTS branches. You can see more of those regular updates in our latest regular release:

grapheneos.org/releases#202510…

Linux kernel patches don't come from the Android Security Bulletins. They do list a tiny subset of upstream Linux issues in the YYYY-MM-05 patch level we've always already patched months earlier.

Non-mainline Pixel kernel driver patches come from Pixel GPL source releases.

in reply to GrapheneOS

@dideldum We don't get early access to new Pixel drivers or firmware. Those still come from the stock Pixel OS and AOSP releases. We get early access to the Android Security Bulletins. When the Android Security Bulletins reference core kernel patches, those are already publicly available either upstream or in the Android GKI repositories.

ASBs have a list of some vendor related patches for drivers, firmware, etc. but it's not distributed through it but rather through from the hardware vendors.

in reply to GrapheneOS

So for me as a user, I should enable security preview releases because then I will get security fixes faster. But there is no downside for me as a user, right? Security preview releases aren't less stable than regular releases, right?
in reply to astroboy

@astroboy The only downside in practice is that the sources aren't available until the embargo date ends.
in reply to GrapheneOS

Yes, but that doesn't prevent me from turning on the security preview releases. Thank you for answering! I agree that what Google did is really bad.
in reply to ṫẎℭỚ◎ᾔ ṫ◎ℳ

@TycoonTom Added information on this to the thread:

grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/…


You can enable security preview releases via Settings > System > System update > Receive security preview releases.

Our plan is to keep it off-by-default with a new page added to the Setup Wizard which will have it toggled on as a recommendation. We'll prompt users on existing installs to choose.


in reply to GrapheneOS

i was also unaware; thanks for pointing that out
Questa voce è stata modificata (3 settimane fa)
in reply to GrapheneOS

Hi, thanks for all the work! Just did this 2 days ago and now my phone (pixel 8a) really struggles to turn on. I have to keep the power button pushed for 30 seconds, and the phone will turn off multiple times before it finally stays on. Could it be linked to this option ?
Questa voce è stata modificata (3 settimane fa)
in reply to jacquerie

@artifact_boi No, it has nothing to do with this. Your device appears to have a hardware failure unrelated to an update. The OS isn't involved in the very early boot. It sounds like your power button may not be working properly anymore due to wear, although it could be a more serious issue with the SoC or main board. It could also be a battery issue.