As of this writing, the April SMR (security maintenance release) for the Galaxy S21 trio is available in Germany. But the rollout should reach more markets in no time. The new firmware version for the phones is G99xxXXS4CVCG.
Don’t expect anything more than security fixes
The latest update for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and Galaxy S21 Ultra likely doesn’t bring anything apart from the new security patch. The phones recently received the One UI 4.1 update from Samsung. It brought along several new features as well as enhancements to a bunch of existing features. As for the content of this month’s SMR, it contains fixes for plenty of vulnerabilities. Samsung’s updated monthly security bulletin mentions as many as 78 new vulnerability fixes for its devices. The majority of those are from Google. However, the April SMR also patches 33 Samsung Vulnerabilities and Exposures (SVE) items. SVEs are security vulnerabilities that only affect Samsung devices. At least three of those were “Critical” vulnerabilities that allowed remote code execution. These vulnerabilities could cause extensive damage to users if exploited in the wild. Other SVEs patched include a couple of vulnerabilities in S Secure that allowed physical attackers to use the locked My Files app without authentication or access to secured data. You can find more details about the content of April SMR for Galaxy devices in Samsung’s monthly security bulletin here.
Samsung once again releases a new security patch before everyone else
We have said this numerous times before, and we are saying it again: Samsung is the first Android OEM to release a new security patch. The Korean behemoth has made a habit of beginning the rollout even before we enter the new month. This month was no different. The Galaxy S22 series received the April security update on the last day of March. The update for the latest Galaxy flagships has already reached several parts of the world. The Galaxy S21 series is now picking up the new SMR as well. You can expect other eligible Galaxy models to join the party soon. As always, updates are released in batches and may not be immediately available to all units in a region. You should get a notification for the OTA (over the air) rollout once it reaches your phone. You can also manually check for updates from the Settings app.
