Termux no longer updated on Google Play • Hacker News Board

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#181

Post by michaelmior » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 5:59 PM UTC

samanator wrote: post #173

michaelmior wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an app on my non-rooted Android phone which does this. You just need to give the app admin permissions.

Oh cool, I didn't know that what possible. What app is that?

Tasker is one example. There's a bit more info here:

https://notenoughtech.com/tasker/important-tasker-5-9-2-upda...

You can certainly do a lot more with a rooted device. I think it's a reasonable tradeoff to limit uncommon use cases for devices which haven't been rooted. I think the majority of users would prefer the additional security restrictions in place on non-rooted devices. For those who want more control, you can root at your own risk.

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#182

Post by admax88q » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 6:06 PM UTC

amingilani wrote: post #9

Quick note: Google's Advanced Protection program disallows sideloading apps, so you can't install F-droid. Edit: Note that the Advanced Protection program is opt-in for users that require the highest degree of security Google can offer. Regular users won't be impacted by this. Edit: proof https://imgur.com/a/yktPNIc Edit 2: see @haunter's comment for a link to the change announcement

I wonder what the actual numbers are on malware installed via side-loading and malware installed from the play store.

There is no shortage of sketchy apps on the play store.

Through my personal bias I would imagine that most people side-loading apps tend to be people using F-Droid who know more or less what they're doing. Although I'm sure there are some people who blindly follow sketch website telling them to install sketchy APK directly. But do these people really outnumber people installing flashlight app from play store that steals your data?

All this locking down your device "for your own protection" assumes that the play store software is actually vetted and secure, but that second piece never seems to fall in to place.

This random article [1] suggests that 67% of malicious app installs comes from the play store itself. So this whole "Advanced Protection" scheme only protects against 23% of threats. Pretty weak IMO.

[1] - https://www.zdnet.com/article/play-store-identified-as-main-...

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#183

Post by Redploy » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 6:09 PM UTC

Contact me if you're looking for a skilled, quick, reliable and confident ethical hacker or programmer. Redploy4000@gmail.com

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#184

Post by Arnt » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 6:12 PM UTC

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #80

londons_explore wrote: post #64

TL;DR: Android is trying to enforce all data being either writable, or executable, never both. iOS already does this. There are big security benefits (it becomes much harder to exploit an app). A disadvantage is it becomes much harder to make things like terminal emulators and things that want to download random code and run it. But those are by far the minority of apps, and it seems crazy to make a pretty massive se…

>But those are by far the minority of apps, and it seems crazy to make a pretty massive security tradeoff for something that 99% of apps don't need to do. It also completely eliminates general purpose computing. >One solution might be a special permission to be allowed to do that, but it seems unlikely a user could really make an informed decision. I think the way "Developer Mode" on Android is implemented is pretty…

Letting people eliminate general purpose computing is the point.

That program permits you to say "as of this moment, all the apps that comprise this device's purpose have been installed, and computing should cease being general, and should instead be limited to only those apps (including upgrades)". This isn't something I'd do for my development device, but I can see how it's a desirable policy for some people.

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#185

Post by paulie_a » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 6:13 PM UTC

riedel wrote: post #162

drKarl wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow! That is a very big deal!!! Almost all of the Apps I have on my Android phone are installed from F-Droid, and I try to avoid installing any Apps from other sources, exceptions force upon me by my social circle, like WhatsApp. I have a PinePhone but it is not yet ready as a daily driver, and also the difference in hardware performance between my Android phone (which I bought this year) and PinePhone (or even Libre…

The problem will start with such offerings only if third parties (like employers or banks) demand turning this on. The patronizing of users that started with saftynet is horrifying. I think it will become crucial that some commercialy relevant group uses non play store content. Otherwise the affordance to use non main stream stuff will become higher and higher.

If the employer demands that then they can provide me the phone

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#186

Post by pjmlp » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 6:19 PM UTC

kuschku wrote: post #151

pjmlp wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can perfectly do plugins on Android, that is how printer drivers work for example. Just use Android IPC mechanisms instead of trying to copy UNIX patterns.

I’ve tried, compared to distributing the plugin as Android NDK library and dynamically linking it into your process performance is just so much worse.

Depends on how it is used. Hardware buffers can be shared across processes.

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#187

Post by liotier » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 6:25 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #104

amingilani wrote: post #9

Quick note: Google's Advanced Protection program disallows sideloading apps, so you can't install F-droid. Edit: Note that the Advanced Protection program is opt-in for users that require the highest degree of security Google can offer. Regular users won't be impacted by this. Edit: proof https://imgur.com/a/yktPNIc Edit 2: see @haunter's comment for a link to the change announcement

I learned recently that having Advanced Protection enabled also rewrites all URLs in your email messages to use the Google URL redirector, even when accessed via IMAP. It breaks PGP signatures, among other things. No way to turn it off without disabling all of Advanced Protection. Sweet, huh?

Office 365 does that too - and Twitter by the way... Copying & pasting URL is becoming mostly a tedious rigmarole of opening the link, seeing what it finally resolves to - and only then copying & pasting...

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#188

Post by pjmlp » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 6:27 PM UTC

wvenable wrote: post #175

pjmlp wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of trying to use POSIX on Android, use the Java based APIs, several shells written in Java available on the store. As well as programming environments. I use a couple of them to code on the go.

I've attempted to use many different Android programming environments on my tablet and they're all terrible compared to basic Linux tools and VSCode. I even managed to get .NET core running on my tablet. There's a real possibility to do real work, everything you're suggesting is a toy at best.

Programming on the go is for toy programs anyway.

For real work there are laptops and desktops.

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#189

Post by searchableguy » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 6:34 PM UTC

michaelmior wrote: post #181

samanator wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh cool, I didn't know that what possible. What app is that?

Tasker is one example. There's a bit more info here: https://notenoughtech.com/tasker/important-tasker-5-9-2-upda... You can certainly do a lot more with a rooted device. I think it's a reasonable tradeoff to limit uncommon use cases for devices which haven't been rooted. I think the majority of users would prefer the additional security restrictions in place on non-rooted devices. For those who want more control, yo…

Google's safety net API is used to check if the device is rooted/unlocked/tampered. Many apps are using that now and will in future. There's no way around it.

You can either have a phone for tinkering or general usage. There is no in-between now.

Re: Termux no longer updated on Google Play

#190

Post by brlewis » Tue, Jan 05, 2021, 6:35 PM UTC

z92 wrote: post #29

The Google play version was crippled beyond being practical anyway. Can't SMS, can't GPS, no access to address book. The usable version is from F-Droid. And I had to install that one just to install Termux. No need to root your phone. Simply install F-Droid app store, and install from there.

I'm very new to Termux and recently installed the Google Play version. If I install the F-Droid version will it have access to all storage, such that I could edit Dropbox files in emacs and have them automatically sync?