Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

phys.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 222 posts

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#91

Post by jamespo »

scarface74 wrote: post #88
dan-0 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to be getting a lot of attention, so as an Android Engineer with some security and framework experience let me try to explain. This is a side effect of Android's initial approach to it's open nature. Android allows a manufacturer to modify its framework for their own use case. Then the manufacturer can allow a specific carrier to input their own system applications and firmware on to the devices well (your…

Sounds like an excuse for poor engineering on the part of Android. Microsoft also sells Windows to multiple OEMs and has done so for decades. OEMs also are free to add bloatware as well as the retailers (ie Best Buy adds its own bloat), but Microsoft doesn’t have this problem.

probably cost you more money than you'd make writing malware for windows phones

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#93

Post by makosharks »

vetinari wrote: post #52
rhinoceraptor wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> purposely throttling So that the phones don't randomly shut off because their lithium ion batteries were old. Yes, they should have told people but it wasn't done maliciously.

That's easy... make the batteries easily replaceable... oh wait.

You can replace the battery by going to an apple store, giving them $49, and then picking it up a few hours later. That's not a terrific challenge.

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#94

Post by scarface74 »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #64
scarface74 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple pushed the carriers to allow it to update its own operating systems over a decade ago.

Apple's situation is completely different from Android. Demand for iphone devices was the leverage Apple had over carriers to do this, and it's not a fragmented ecosystem in the first place.

Google had plenty of leverage early on with carriers that didn’t have the iPhone. Google still has leverage by threatening to withhold Google Play Services. The last thing carriers want is not to have an alternative to Apple and no cheap phones to entice customers.

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#96

Post by cure »

jammygit wrote: post #70
komali2 wrote: post #2

> Google already fixed at least one of the Android exploits used by "Agent Smith," nicknamed Janus, in 2017 but the fix hasn't made its way onto every Android phone. It's a potent reminder that millions of phones around the world are being used without the latest security measures. Because Samsung (or similar) or even more weirdly, Sprint (or similar) just doesn't fucking update our Android versions for months, or ev…

Question: my brother just got a used pixel 1 phone. Will it stop getting security updates soon/already?

Yes, looks like October 2019 is the end: https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en#pixel_...

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#97

Post by snarf21 »

dan-0 wrote: post #77
komali2 wrote: post #2

> Google already fixed at least one of the Android exploits used by "Agent Smith," nicknamed Janus, in 2017 but the fix hasn't made its way onto every Android phone. It's a potent reminder that millions of phones around the world are being used without the latest security measures. Because Samsung (or similar) or even more weirdly, Sprint (or similar) just doesn't fucking update our Android versions for months, or ev…

This seems to be getting a lot of attention, so as an Android Engineer with some security and framework experience let me try to explain. This is a side effect of Android's initial approach to it's open nature. Android allows a manufacturer to modify its framework for their own use case. Then the manufacturer can allow a specific carrier to input their own system applications and firmware on to the devices well (your…

This is also solvable by Android taking a slightly different approach. Isolating the OS and security framework so that it can always just be updated. The carriers and and manufacturers are still free to install whatever bloatware they want and do what ever logo nonsense they want.

We ran into nonsense issues creating a cross platform development toolchain when HTC phones just didn't implement certain functions of the WebView. We were then stuck trying to create workarounds for no reason. Android could have been the best of both worlds but they just punted it and left their users holding the bag.

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#98

Post by michaelcampbell »

cstejerean wrote: post #87
dan-0 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to be getting a lot of attention, so as an Android Engineer with some security and framework experience let me try to explain. This is a side effect of Android's initial approach to it's open nature. Android allows a manufacturer to modify its framework for their own use case. Then the manufacturer can allow a specific carrier to input their own system applications and firmware on to the devices well (your…

This is what I love about Apple. They gave the carriers a big middle finger when it comes to the usual bullshit of bloatware, sticking their logos on things or getting in the middle of updates. That’s because they cared about the end user experience. Google was happy to just grab market share at the expense of the users by allowing carriers to continue with their usual shenanigans. For this reason Apple will have my…

> That’s because they cared about the end user experience.

I'm sure 100% of any revenue going to Apple and not shared with anyone had nothing to do with that.

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#99

Post by scarface74 »

choward wrote: post #75
thanatos_dem wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not even the battery thing. That was an attempt at graceful degradation that wasn’t communicated well. The general belief was that having a phone that runs a bit more slowly, but consistently used it’s battery as the battery life naturally degrades is better than a phone suddenly dying with 40% battery remaining if the peak power draw exceeds what a several year old lithium ion battery can produce. I much prefer th…

Just make it so the batteries are easily replaceable. It's wasteful to buy a brand new phone when all you need is a new battery.

A battery replacement is $79. No one is forcing you to buy a new phone.

Re: Malicious apps infect 25M Android devices with 'Agent Smith' malware

#100

Post by kube-system »

choward wrote: post #75
thanatos_dem wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not even the battery thing. That was an attempt at graceful degradation that wasn’t communicated well. The general belief was that having a phone that runs a bit more slowly, but consistently used it’s battery as the battery life naturally degrades is better than a phone suddenly dying with 40% battery remaining if the peak power draw exceeds what a several year old lithium ion battery can produce. I much prefer th…

Just make it so the batteries are easily replaceable. It's wasteful to buy a brand new phone when all you need is a new battery.

Ease of maintenance is rarely a marketable feature in mass-market consumer products, and most often is deprioritized.
Post reply on HN