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More Than 1M Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan

blog.checkpoint.com

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Re: More Than 1M Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan

#71
post #60
post #40

We were just reading "Android security in 2016 is a mess"[1] 2 days ago and now we have another great example for it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13056288

"Windows is a mess because you can install a virus executable on it." "You can't install Windows software outside App Store anymore, MS is taking muh freedoms." You can't win.

Uhm, definitively let me install software on my computer when/how I want? Get the security model right, works for unix.

Re: More Than 1M Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan

#72
post #60
post #40

We were just reading "Android security in 2016 is a mess"[1] 2 days ago and now we have another great example for it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13056288

"Windows is a mess because you can install a virus executable on it." "You can't install Windows software outside App Store anymore, MS is taking muh freedoms." You can't win.

There absolutely is a trade-off here between freedom to operate and likely security (with the exception of highly skilled technical people with a lot of time on their hands, who can likely have both).

Personally I'd say that most non-technical computer users are better off using a more locked down/secure OS (e.g. iOS) as they are generally ill-equipped to manage an open computing platform with the current level of threats that there are out there.

Re: More Than 1M Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan

#73
post #60
post #40

We were just reading "Android security in 2016 is a mess"[1] 2 days ago and now we have another great example for it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13056288

"Windows is a mess because you can install a virus executable on it." "You can't install Windows software outside App Store anymore, MS is taking muh freedoms." You can't win.

You actually can win.

Apple makes the choice with iOS to be closed. People hate on that because they distrust a centralized authority with good reason, however it is far safer for those who don't mind giving up control.

Google makes the choice with Android to be open. People hate on that because they want the system to be safe, however it is in the control of the end user for those who don't mind taking responsibility for the safety of their own device.

Both absolutely win at what they are trying to be.

MS on the other hand tries to pretend to be both while actually not delivering the benefits of either. That is certainly a way not to win.

Re: More Than 1M Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan

#74
post #60
post #40

We were just reading "Android security in 2016 is a mess"[1] 2 days ago and now we have another great example for it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13056288

"Windows is a mess because you can install a virus executable on it." "You can't install Windows software outside App Store anymore, MS is taking muh freedoms." You can't win.

You definitely can't win, but those two complaints are not mutually exclusive. Instead of locking down apps to solve the first problem, in theory Microsoft could have redesigned Windows to make third party executables less of a risk. Obviously that's harder, but it's not hypocritical to make both those statements.

Re: More Than 1M Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan

#75
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No gmail, gmaps, gphotos ? do you have replacements ? pse: thanks all AP a lot for suggestions :)

K9Mail with Fastmail, AddressToGPS + OSMAnd, I back up my own photos with a home server and some rsync (Syncopoli). There is PhotoBackup which is kind of neat though. We use Google Calendar for stuff at work, Google still has an old psuedo-deprecated-not-talked-about CalDav endpoint I hit with DavDroid that gives me all of that. These problems were solved with protocols long before gardens. I use offlineCalendar(Yes…

Funny, I use exactly the same apps on my Cyanogenmod phone - K9 + Fastmail, OSMAnd. There arnt that many good alternatives to Google, apparently.

The only thing I'm still missing is public transit navigation.

I do have the Play Store installed though - through OpenGApps pico - I only have the Play Store, none of the other Google stuff - with a dummy gmail account.

Re: More Than 1M Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan

#76

> While Google implemented multiple mechanisms, like two-factor-authentication, to prevent hackers from compromising Google accounts, a stolen authorization token bypasses this mechanism and allows hackers the desired access as the user is perceived as already logged in. What's the right fix here? Should auth tokens be ip-address-tied? How much will that break? Or would that not even fix it?

> Should auth tokens be ip-address-tied?

Won't fix the problem when there's malware on the same device that the auth token was stolen from...

Re: More Than 1M Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan

#77
post #29

Malware on your Android device picked up from third party app stores (FDroid? Amazon?) that steals email accounts and auth tokens. Looks like it only works on the older Android 4 Jellybean software (and some Android 5 Lollipop) and below, so mostly concentrated in Asia where there are lower-end phones. You can see if your account has been affected here: https://gooligan.checkpoint.com/

Thanks for making this comment. This post is a wonderful example of the rampant marketing that has given the security industry a bad name. - The title is technically accurate, which is the best kind of accurate for clickbait. This is not a novel vulnerability representative of an application security flaw within Google - the malware campaign specifically targets older devices using previously known vulnerabilities.[1…

The fact that most consumers aren't aware they most Android devices are susceptible to these kind of vulnerability argues for more noise about these issues - not calming press releases talking about how the issues are moot with the latest build.

Re: More Than 1M Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan

#78
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

K9Mail with Fastmail, AddressToGPS + OSMAnd, I back up my own photos with a home server and some rsync (Syncopoli). There is PhotoBackup which is kind of neat though. We use Google Calendar for stuff at work, Google still has an old psuedo-deprecated-not-talked-about CalDav endpoint I hit with DavDroid that gives me all of that. These problems were solved with protocols long before gardens. I use offlineCalendar(Yes…

Funny, I use exactly the same apps on my Cyanogenmod phone - K9 + Fastmail, OSMAnd. There arnt that many good alternatives to Google, apparently. The only thing I'm still missing is public transit navigation. I do have the Play Store installed though - through OpenGApps pico - I only have the Play Store, none of the other Google stuff - with a dummy gmail account.

My city has a transit app they maintain, but I'm afraid that'll stop if Google gets too ubiquitous in this area. It's really too bad that information that should be released as clean openData sets is so difficult to acquire and parse easily. Really should be some regulation around what, how and how often public information should be published and maintained.

Re: More Than 1M Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan

#79
post #6

Does anyone else use a special account for their Android phone that they don't use for anything else?

As an android phone owner for just over 30 hours.. at this point: yes. I grow less inclined to change that. OTOH, I never trusted my previous I-device with any significant data either, and any paid apps on there were gifted from a separate account on a desktop machine.

Re: More Than 1M Google Accounts Breached by Gooligan

#80
post #12

So wait this is phishing, not actually hacking into Google to breach accounts if I understood it correctly? In that case, I suppose the title might be technically correct (those accounts are indeed breached), but it makes it sound like Google is to blame.

No, it's a Trojan horse. Users installed what they thought was a legit app, but it came bundled with malware that stole their auth token.
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