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I think it's more difficult to patch old versions of Android than you're suggesting. You can't just backport a few lines of code and hope for the best. You have

I think it's more difficult to patch old versions of Android than you're suggesting. You can't just backport a few lines of code and hope for the best. You have to maintain all the testing infrastructure that you had in place back when that version was supported, to avoid introducing new bugs with your change. And if you're releasing a security fix, you now have to coordinate that release across all versions that were vulnerable, because patching the vulnerability in one version usually discloses it in all versions. So you've slowed down fixes for your most up-to-date version, on top of the added expense of all that testing. Companies like Microsoft make boatloads of money in exchange for supporting old versions of their software like that. But nobody is going to pay Google enough to support old Android phones.

x0x0 11y ago
it's already disclosed, don't pretend like patching 4.4.4 discloses anything
ocdtrekkie 11y ago
Google released a patch for Stagefright for 4.4.x anyways. So this is not the reason. The problem is that Android is currently flawed in implementation in that it treats security fixes and system upgrades the same way. There's only one "path" to get updates. So by blocking 5.1, I also don't get a Stagefright fix for my 4.4, even though a fix for 4.4 already exists. Also, companies like Microsoft do charge extra for supporting old versions. Specifically, versions OVER TEN YEARS OLD. (Vista security updates are still free!) However, Google does not properly support OS versions released within the last year, which is drastically worse.