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Permissions asked for by Uber Android app

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11–20 of 164 posts

Re: Permissions asked for by Uber Android app

#11
post #2

There's a general trend of mobile apps that ask for everything: camera, microphone, sensors, access to local files, WiFi, etc. These are apps (like Uber) with no good reason to need access to such things. In most cases I can think of no good reason for this except either a desire to surveil customers for indirect monetization, or participation in government or private surveillance grid efforts. I've got Lyft on my An…

It's a common practice to do this "just in case" you need the permissions later on. When first installing an app users are likely to hit Ok to whatever, but when permissions change on an update they are hit with another screen that tells them the specific thing you are now asking permissions for.

Re: Permissions asked for by Uber Android app

#12
post #5

TLDR : Uber's Android app is literally malware Since the website is currently down, this person reverse-engineered Uber's Android app and discovered it has code that will "call home" aka send data back to Uber with your: - SMS list [edit: see other comments re SMSLog, SMS permission is not currently requested] - call history - wifi connections - GPS location - every type of device fingerprint possible (device IDs) It…

Yikes, uninstalling now. I haven't used Uber for a while, but it's been useful to have just in case Lyft is +200% and Sidecar doesn't have anything available... Now it's not even worth it to have the software on my phone. Thanks for the summary and link to the decompiled source code.

Re: Permissions asked for by Uber Android app

#14
post #5

TLDR : Uber's Android app is literally malware Since the website is currently down, this person reverse-engineered Uber's Android app and discovered it has code that will "call home" aka send data back to Uber with your: - SMS list [edit: see other comments re SMSLog, SMS permission is not currently requested] - call history - wifi connections - GPS location - every type of device fingerprint possible (device IDs) It…

Just for completeness sake and judging from the function names, this is the list, with attributes stored for each:

- Accounts log (Email)

- App Activity (Name, PackageName, Process Number of activity, Processed id)

- App Data Usage (Cache size, code size, data size, name, package name)

- App Install (installed at, name, package name, unknown sources enabled, version code, version name)

- Battery (health, level, plugged, present, scale, status, technology, temperature, voltage)

- Device Info (board, brand, build version, cell number, device, device type, display, fingerprint, ip, mac address, manufacturer, model, os platform, product, sdk code, total disk space, unknown sources enabled)

- GPS (accuracy, altitude, latitude, longitude, provider, speed)

- MMS (from number, mms at, mmss type, service number, to number)

- NetData (bytes received, bytes sent, connection type, interface type)

- PhoneCall (call duration, called at, from number, phone call type, to number)

- SMS (from number, service number, sms at, sms type, to number)

- TelephonyInfo (cell tower id, cell tower latitude, cell tower longitude, imei, iso country code, local area code, meid, mobile country code, mobile network code, network name, network type, phone type, sim serial number, sim state, subscriber id)

- WifiConnection (bssid, ip, linkspeed, macaddr, networkid, rssi, ssid)

- WifiNeighbors (bssid, capabilities, frequency, level, ssid)

- Root Check (root staus code, root status reason code, root version, sig file version)

- Malware Info (algorithm confidence, app list, found malware, malware sdk version, package list, reason code, service list, sigfile version)

Or, put differently, I really don't see any reason for Google not to immediately remove this app from the store permanently and ban whatever developer uploaded it. There should probably be legal action.

Edit: I've augmented the various types of data retrieved (ie: there is capability in the source to read, save and transmit this data) from the inauth framework sources.

Re: Permissions asked for by Uber Android app

#15
post #5

TLDR : Uber's Android app is literally malware Since the website is currently down, this person reverse-engineered Uber's Android app and discovered it has code that will "call home" aka send data back to Uber with your: - SMS list [edit: see other comments re SMSLog, SMS permission is not currently requested] - call history - wifi connections - GPS location - every type of device fingerprint possible (device IDs) It…

Sorry might not cut it this time.

Re: Permissions asked for by Uber Android app

#17
post #5

TLDR : Uber's Android app is literally malware Since the website is currently down, this person reverse-engineered Uber's Android app and discovered it has code that will "call home" aka send data back to Uber with your: - SMS list [edit: see other comments re SMSLog, SMS permission is not currently requested] - call history - wifi connections - GPS location - every type of device fingerprint possible (device IDs) It…

Just for completeness sake and judging from the function names, this is the list, with attributes stored for each: - Accounts log (Email) - App Activity (Name, PackageName, Process Number of activity, Processed id) - App Data Usage (Cache size, code size, data size, name, package name) - App Install (installed at, name, package name, unknown sources enabled, version code, version name) - Battery (health, level, plugg…

> I really don't see any reason for Google not to immediately remove this app

Apart from Google being an investor in Uber?

Re: Permissions asked for by Uber Android app

#18
post #11
post #2

There's a general trend of mobile apps that ask for everything: camera, microphone, sensors, access to local files, WiFi, etc. These are apps (like Uber) with no good reason to need access to such things. In most cases I can think of no good reason for this except either a desire to surveil customers for indirect monetization, or participation in government or private surveillance grid efforts. I've got Lyft on my An…

It's a common practice to do this "just in case" you need the permissions later on. When first installing an app users are likely to hit Ok to whatever, but when permissions change on an update they are hit with another screen that tells them the specific thing you are now asking permissions for.

If the author is correct, then Uber is not only asking for permission but actually reading all the information and sending it back to its servers.

Re: Permissions asked for by Uber Android app

#19
post #7
post #3

Recall that PUT / DELETE aren’t official HTTP requests, rather extensions implemented via WebDav. Modern applications don’t bother with these requests since its easier / more secure to perform those same actions with a server side language. Apparently the author has not ever heard of REST. I'm a little shocked by that.

Yeah I noticed that as well, it makes me wonder about the rest of his technical assertions that I'm less able to judge. Just in case anyone was wondering here's the HTTP 1.1 rfc: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt A simple search will show that it does include PUT and DELETE.

> "... it makes me wonder about the rest of his technical assertions that I'm less able to judge."

What technical assertions? From what I can gather, he's just pointing out what he sees in the code and what he thinks it might be doing. None of that feels like technical assertions (apart from the statement about PUT and GET).

Re: Permissions asked for by Uber Android app

#20
post #5

TLDR : Uber's Android app is literally malware Since the website is currently down, this person reverse-engineered Uber's Android app and discovered it has code that will "call home" aka send data back to Uber with your: - SMS list [edit: see other comments re SMSLog, SMS permission is not currently requested] - call history - wifi connections - GPS location - every type of device fingerprint possible (device IDs) It…

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