Microsoft issued Windows patch for KRACK exploits; Android fix expected in “coming weeks”, first to Pixels; researchers: devices with Android 6.0+ are affected
Tom Warren / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
The day after researchers disclosed KRACK attacks against WPA2, Microsoft has already shipped a Windows patch, while Google's Android fix is still weeks out and reportedly reaches Pixel devices first — with researchers flagging that anything running Android 6.0 or later is exposed. That gap matters because it replays a familiar pattern: earlier this year Project Zero found a serious Broadcom WiFi chipset flaw affecting many Android devices, and in 2016 Google issued patches for critical bugs that a large percentage of phones were simply ineligible to receive.
So the story here isn't just one vulnerability — it's the recurring lag between when a Wi-Fi weakness is disclosed and when the fragmented Android base actually gets fixed, with Microsoft able to close its exposure in a single update cycle.
First-order effects
- Windows users get immediate protection via Microsoft's patch, while owners of Android 6.0+ devices — reported at 41% of the Android base in related coverage — remain exposed to KRACK until Google's fix arrives, Pixels first in line.
Second-order effects
- Google's 'coming weeks' timeline puts its own Pixel and Nexus December patch schedule under scrutiny, since the delay hands Microsoft a visible security-response win and pressures OEMs and carriers whose slower pipelines leave their devices waiting even longer.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — echoing the 2016 episode where many phones couldn't receive critical fixes at all — patch latency becomes a structural argument for first-party hardware like Pixel over the fragmented Android fleet, with monthly security bulletins doing the work carrier updates won't.
The trend: Wi-Fi vulnerability response is splitting into two speeds — same-cycle patches for tightly controlled platforms like Windows and Pixel versus months-long rollouts across the fragmented Android ecosystem.