Ask HN: Why is Android plagued with malware when it's based off Linux?

As I understand Linux has one of the most secure kernels, so what makes android so vulnerable?

One of the reasons linux is secure is that it's not popular with your standard user. If it was more popular, hackers would be more insensitive to attack it and users stupid enough to download stuff from unlegitimate website, click on popup ads to download some porn game or whatever.

Android however has a very high penetration rate and its user are not all tech savy. A lot of them or going to google thing like "game android free" and download .apk willy nilly, giving them permissions without thinking.

I think that the Linux kernel is reasonably secure, but it still suffers from frequent vulnerabilities.

But to answer your question, I think you see a lot of Android malware for two reasons:

1. Android devices aren't usually patched with the latest security fixes.

2. Most malware exploits the application frameworks that sit on top of the Linux kernel. These frameworks aren't nearly as secure. And if an application framework has a kernel-mode component where code can be executed? There goes most kernel security protections.

Because its the most used and therefore the most targeted. It doesn't have to be considered %100 secure just because its linux, remember the early 2000s with windows 2000 and XP and how they were also heavily targeted. things have changed now of course.

same thing could happen to Mac OS X if it becomes more widely used (happened already).