Google reaches out and touches your phone...

[Pliablemoose]

An Update on Android Market Security

Saturday, March 5, 2011 | 10:08 PM
On Tuesday evening, the Android team was made aware of a number of malicious applications published to Android Market. Within minutes of becoming aware, we identified and removed the malicious applications. The applications took advantage of known vulnerabilities which don’t affect Android versions 2.2.2 or higher. For affected devices, we believe that the only information the attacker(s) were able to gather was device-specific (IMEI/IMSI, unique codes which are used to identify mobile devices, and the version of Android running on your device). But given the nature of the exploits, the attacker(s) could access other data, which is why we’ve taken a number of steps to protect those who downloaded a malicious application:

1. We removed the malicious applications from Android Market, suspended the associated developer accounts, and contacted law enforcement about the attack.
2. We are remotely removing the malicious applications from affected devices. This remote application removal feature is one of many security controls the Android team can use to help protect users from malicious applications.
3. We are pushing an Android Market security update to all affected devices that undoes the exploits to prevent the attacker(s) from accessing any more information from affected devices. If your device has been affected, you will receive an email from android-market-support@google.com over the next 72 hours. You will also receive a notification on your device that “Android Market Security Tool March 2011” has been installed. You may also receive notification(s) on your device that an application has been removed. You are not required to take any action from there; the update will automatically undo the exploit. Within 24 hours of the exploit being undone, you will receive a second email.
4. We are adding a number of measures to help prevent additional malicious applications using similar exploits from being distributed through Android Market and are working with our partners to provide the fix for the underlying security issues.

For more details, please visit the Android Market Help Center. We always encourage you to check the list of permissions when installing an application from Android Market. Security is a priority for the Android team, and we’re committed to building new safeguards to help prevent these kinds of attacks from happening in the future.

http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/03/update-on-android-market-security.html

On one hand, I appreciate that they're protecting users, but on the other hand, holy f**k, they can pull apps off my phone remotely?

 

[zerocool84]

I'm not trying to start a flame ware but it's probably going to happen anyways but I remember a couple years ago we had articles that Apple was able to do the same thing for the exact same reason on the iPhone. Like you said, it's great that they do it so they can protect their users but it has potentially bad implications as well. It seems the only way any of us can be without any info getting sent to Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc is to not use a smartphone at all.

 

[dguy6789]

If Google or Apple abused this in some way to rip off a user, they would catch serious hell from the media. I don't think there is any chance of anything happening that is worth worrying about.

 

[Deeko]

They all can do this - and its happened across multiple platforms. Apple has done it was iOS, Amazon has done it with the Kindle....Fanboys will probably make a bigger deal out of it than they should, but that's what makes them fanboys.

 

[Anonemous]

Apple and Google both had kill switches in their OS. So they pulled and disabled the Trojans affecting the android user's phones. Depending on the spin you can say they did it without the users choice or they protected their users. Apple/MS/Google are collecting data from you either way through the phones.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I can't believe people don't think that these companies have the ability to do this stuff.

As long as it's no abused there is absolutely zero problem with this.

 

[rudeguy]

they did this before

They only do it when its 100% necessary. In this case, these apps offered nothing that wasn't on the market in a legit app.

Something like this is easy enough to track. Are they going to press charges on the scum that released that crap?

 

[Ksyder]

From what I can tell, I had an app on my Droid 1 phone removed a few months ago, so I assumed that Google could pull apps off users phones if there was a reason to do so.

The app was an MP3 downloading program, which when I started to use it, it was very clear that it was pirated content. I downloaded a few songs, and then a few weeks later, I looked and the app was no longer anywhere on my phone, although IIRC the directory was still on the sd card.

 

[Patranus]

I'm not trying to start a flame ware but it's probably going to happen anyways but I remember a couple years ago we had articles that Apple was able to do the same thing for the exact same reason on the iPhone. Like you said, it's great that they do it so they can protect their users but it has potentially bad implications as well. It seems the only way any of us can be without any info getting sent to Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc is to not use a smartphone at all.

Pretty sure it was Amazon with books.

 

[Glitchny]

they did this before

They only do it when its 100% necessary. In this case, these apps offered nothing that wasn't on the market in a legit app.

Something like this is easy enough to track. Are they going to press charges on the scum that released that crap?

IIRC they already contacted authorities etc, not sure where the developer is located though.