Millions of Android phones come with pre-installed malware, and there's no fix
1–10 of 11 posts
Re: Millions of Android phones come with pre-installed malware, and there's no fix
#2"Cheaper phones tend to use the Android Open Source Platform (AOSP) and come with anywhere between 100 and 400 pre-installed apps – all it takes is infecting one of them."
100-400 pre-installed apps? That's crazy.
Re: Millions of Android phones come with pre-installed malware, and there's no fix
#3I bought an Alcatel phone, it has less bloat, no layer of things like Samsung phones.
Although it has some wallpaper icon that I cannot remove on the lock screen.
At least windows can install itself on a PC, but it's 2023 and it's still not possible to do that with Android phones. I don't think there is a good enough excuse for this.
I'm not an Android or Linux developer but I don't see why it's impossible to install Android myself. Difficult? Maybe (drivers etc), but why would it be impossible?
It's not difficult to see that android is not as open source as we think.
Re: Millions of Android phones come with pre-installed malware, and there's no fix
#4"Cheaper phones tend to use the Android Open Source Platform (AOSP) and come with anywhere between 100 and 400 pre-installed apps – all it takes is infecting one of them." 100-400 pre-installed apps? That's crazy.
Considering every single Android phone "uses" AOSP, I have a hard time taking this article seriously as more than simply fear mongering for Trend Micro.
Yes, many low-end cheap devices come with malware and should be used with caution, but 400 extra "apps"? I'd love to see the data, cause I think not.
Re: Millions of Android phones come with pre-installed malware, and there's no fix
#5"Cheaper phones tend to use the Android Open Source Platform (AOSP) and come with anywhere between 100 and 400 pre-installed apps – all it takes is infecting one of them." 100-400 pre-installed apps? That's crazy.
Most of those apps aren't user launchable from launcher apps. And since most people don't really understand that there are more apps in the Android phones that the ones you can see in the launcher, they might not see that there is something wrong.
Re: Millions of Android phones come with pre-installed malware, and there's no fix
#6Re: Millions of Android phones come with pre-installed malware, and there's no fix
#7I bought an Alcatel phone, it has less bloat, no layer of things like Samsung phones. Although it has some wallpaper icon that I cannot remove on the lock screen. At least windows can install itself on a PC, but it's 2023 and it's still not possible to do that with Android phones. I don't think there is a good enough excuse for this. I'm not an Android or Linux developer but I don't see why it's impossible to install…
ci.android.com, or build it yourself from source and install it.
The hard part is drivers.
Re: Millions of Android phones come with pre-installed malware, and there's no fix
#8"Cheaper phones tend to use the Android Open Source Platform (AOSP) and come with anywhere between 100 and 400 pre-installed apps – all it takes is infecting one of them." 100-400 pre-installed apps? That's crazy.
If every package in the Settings list counts as an "app" (including many, many system services), then maybe.
Re: Millions of Android phones come with pre-installed malware, and there's no fix
#9"Cheaper phones tend to use the Android Open Source Platform (AOSP) and come with anywhere between 100 and 400 pre-installed apps – all it takes is infecting one of them." 100-400 pre-installed apps? That's crazy.
Considering every single Android phone "uses" AOSP, I have a hard time taking this article seriously as more than simply fear mongering for Trend Micro. Yes, many low-end cheap devices come with malware and should be used with caution, but 400 extra "apps"? I'd love to see the data, cause I think not.
Using AOSP is in contrast to being a google partner with certified devices, play store, and their questionable scanning tool. In countries where Play isn't the popular store, cheaper devices haven't gone through the partner certification rules, which maybe catch some particularly silly stuff..
People may think of user visible apps, but there are hundreds of packages to remove from a new phone and they have permissions and the possibility of being launched to handle requests from other apps, etc.
Re: Millions of Android phones come with pre-installed malware, and there's no fix
#10I bought an Alcatel phone, it has less bloat, no layer of things like Samsung phones. Although it has some wallpaper icon that I cannot remove on the lock screen. At least windows can install itself on a PC, but it's 2023 and it's still not possible to do that with Android phones. I don't think there is a good enough excuse for this. I'm not an Android or Linux developer but I don't see why it's impossible to install…
You can install Android yourself. Most people will use Android "distros" like https://lineageos.org/. Or of course you can go the "Android from scratch" route.
But yes, the biggest issue is drivers. Many phones have proprietary drivers that are required for the hardware to fully function.