The Android operating system is built on top of the Linux kernel. Over the past few decades, Linux has evolved as a secure operating system trusted by many corporations across the world for its security. By having the Linux kernel at the heart of its platform, Android tries to ensure security at the OS level. Also, Android has built a lot of specific code into Linux to include certain features related to the mobile environment. With each Android release the kernel version also has changed. The following table shows Android versions and the corresponding Linux kernel version:
|
Android version |
Linux kernel version |
|
1.0 |
2.6.25 |
|
1.5 |
2.6.27 |
|
1.6 |
2.6.29 |
|
2.2 |
2.6.32 |
|
2.3 |
2.6.35 |
|
3.0 |
2.6.36 |
|
4.0 |
3.0.1 |
|
4.1 |
3.0.31 |
|
4.2 |
3.4.0 |
|
4.3 |
3.4.39 |
|
4.4 |
3.8 |
|
5.0 |
3.16.1 |
|
6.0 |
3.18.10 |
|
7.0 |
4.4.1 |
|
7.1 |
4.4.1 |
|
8.0 |
4.10 |
|
9.0 |
4.4.107, 4.9.84, and 4.14.42 |
The Linux kernel provides Android with the following key security features:
- A user-based permissions model
- Process isolation
- Extensible mechanism for secure IPC