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Major Android Bug Is a Privacy Disaster (CVE-2014-6041)

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101–110 of 232 posts

Re: Major Android Bug Is a Privacy Disaster (CVE-2014-6041)

#101
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"So the bug is only for a browser that isn't supported by Google?" Wait, what ? I'm not an android user, but I am a chrome user on all of my desktops ... can someone enlighten me ? How is chrome not a browser supported by google ?

AOSP Browser is the unsupported one. Google deprecated it in favor of Chrome.

"deprecated" while there are still millions of consumers whose products only run 2.3.3 with enough memory for aosp browser (which they cant even uninstall)

google logic. ...or better yet, san francisco dev logic

Re: Major Android Bug Is a Privacy Disaster (CVE-2014-6041)

#103

Is anyone familiar with the code that allows this vulnerability to be present and where I can find it(I believe this project is open source)? I understand the exploit is adding a nullbyte at the beginning of some javascript due to some bad handling in the parsing code. So I'm looking here: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Brow...

I don't know the exact location, but it is probably somewhere in the webview tree, since it affects apps that embed webviews as well:

https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/...

Re: Major Android Bug Is a Privacy Disaster (CVE-2014-6041)

#104
post #96
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the latest Chrome for Android and it's 65MB for the app. Still large, but nowhere near 190MB.

did you disable cache somehow? open a bunch of ssl pages and see app data space explode. same happens with firefox

I did not disable cache and it shows a large amount of cache data. But the post I responded to claimed 189MB of app data.

Re: Major Android Bug Is a Privacy Disaster (CVE-2014-6041)

#105
post #2

This is nuts. On a sidenote, any suggestions for an equivalently fast, secure browser for Android 4.2 on a relatively old phone? Not gonna use AOSP anymore!

Opera Classic is great. The new Opera works very much like Chrome, since it's based on Chromium.

Re: Major Android Bug Is a Privacy Disaster (CVE-2014-6041)

#106
post #65

Replaced by Chrome ("that giant hog"). I'm on a slightly older phone, but I actually removed Chrome from it not long ago. I started having problems with updating apps due to insufficient space, and while I have a fair amount of crap installed, I also have ~2.5GB of "Phone" storage for apps so I started investigating (this is separate from "sdcard" data storage which is ~8GB). Turns out Chrome, at least on the HTC Ama…

I am running out of space because Play Store and Google Framework get bigger and bigger. It fills me with rage how Google actively makes my old phone less capable over time for no benefit to me.

Yea, don't they know 128 mb should have been enough for anyone?

/s

I don't see why shiny progress should be held up because you can't be arsed keeping up with new generations of tech. If you don't like it, go install a rom and some of the many many many alternate applications which keep sizes small.

Mobile phones began, much like desktops began, extremely limited. We are simply seeing the same thing happen, we're now getting up to sizes of around 32 gb, yes, it happened much faster this time, and that may be why many feel the pinch much more - I'm sorry for that - however it is the price to pay for being an early adopter like yourself.

Yet thankfully,it has also now reached a level where it is now almost impossible to fill with application data. Storage and processing may continue to increase but I highly doubt you will feel quite the same pain of running low on space with nothing but chrome and facebook installed.

Re: Major Android Bug Is a Privacy Disaster (CVE-2014-6041)

#107
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am running out of space because Play Store and Google Framework get bigger and bigger. It fills me with rage how Google actively makes my old phone less capable over time for no benefit to me.

Yeah. I was using a Nexus One for a long time until I had to prune so many apps due to space that it wasn't worth using. I got a new phone, HTC One S (I needed a t-mobile branded phone for wifi calling) with several gigs of system partition space, and now I have to play that game again. I recognize that there are a bunch of features now that I get to enjoy, but now I have to choose which ones I want to keep. When I s…

For what its worth, the chrome Mac OS X version of google chrome is 331.9 MB on disk. Doesn't seem bogus to me.

Re: Major Android Bug Is a Privacy Disaster (CVE-2014-6041)

#108
post #37

I am a big Linux fan and appreciate the openness and control that I can get with Android as opposed to Apple and Microsoft products, but... My Android experience has been shit, and I'm really getting sick of it. Admittedly, much or even most of the problem for me is the OEMs screwing things up and not sending out updates.

What does Android has to do with Linux? Do you also praise TiVo for the "openness and control" by using the Linux kernel?

You make a good point, though you present it in an awkward manner. Android has everything to do with Linux in its usage of the Linux kernel, but its userspace offers none of the actual advantages of using a Unix-like kernel.

The GNU/Linux terminology is actually quite relevant here, seeing as Android is Linux, but not GNU/Linux. Hell, Android's libc comes from OpenBSD, so...

Re: Major Android Bug Is a Privacy Disaster (CVE-2014-6041)

#109
post #99
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in my times browsers would kill for a 20% market share...

both are chrome. just different versions. google ridicules microsoft with IE6, and the first offline platform they release they made the exact same mistake! bundle a integrated browser just so the use cant uninstall... and decide to not patch it.

not the exact same mistake, as you can install chrome...and now those can at least be disabled. Un-installable system apps...another place where the microsoft and apple default is a mistake.

Re: Major Android Bug Is a Privacy Disaster (CVE-2014-6041)

#110
post #96
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the latest Chrome for Android and it's 65MB for the app. Still large, but nowhere near 190MB.

did you disable cache somehow? open a bunch of ssl pages and see app data space explode. same happens with firefox

The cache doesn't seem relevant but I could test that. Presently my breakdown is 189MB+21MB , App+data, and 13MB Cache.

   Uninstalled.

   Reinstalled.  (play store reports 30MB download)

   Before opening the app  65MB+4KB, 0MB cache

   First launch (no sync sign-in) 65MB + 10MB, 60KB cache

   Browsed Noisy SSL page (google plus feed):  65MB + 14MB, 13MB cache
   
   Signed into sync: no change  ( 10min later, no change)

   Browsed image heavy site (imgur): 65MB + 14MB, 25MB cache

Does chrome store the old versions on upgrade? That would perfectly explain why my fresh install is 64MB, and my older isntall was 3x that size.
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