This is precisely why I have auto-updates turned off. No minor security or bug updates are worth getting an all-out infection(or unexpectedly losing features).
How do you decide when it is safe to update?
Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update
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Re: Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update
#12Thinking about it, Apple seems like they'd have better dealt with this sort of issue in four ways:
* Stricter review process to catch this preemptively
* Stricter app isolation to limit impact without a vulnerability explicit
* Longer maintained and more forceful operating system updates to minimize the number of phones running with known exploits
* Likely removing/disabling app from phones and not just the app store
Re: Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update
#13The only reason this was detected was very overt behavior - opening AD popups. So I guesstimate for each one of these we have 10 that go undetected.
This means the whole ecosystem is broken, as there is no reason this will happen only for updates and not for new apps as well. Apple's ecosystem is somewhat better, but I can't imagine they go through every line of code in each package, so most of their review is probably done with some combination of automatic static and dynamic analysis, and these can be fooled. The problem with both platforms is that they don't provide run of the mill users the option of installing an effective firewall and security solutions.
Re: Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update
#14Can't Google remove apps like Rocket Cleaner, that participate in these ads?
Re: Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update
#15I don't get why no barcode scanner app is shipped with Android. It's such a basic functionality. Edit: apparently it IS shipped on iOS and at least my Lineage OS default camera app has a QR code reader too.
Re: Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update
#16Apple’s (often critical) review process for app updates is shining right now! Edit: /s
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Re: Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update
#17I don't get why no barcode scanner app is shipped with Android. It's such a basic functionality. Edit: apparently it IS shipped on iOS and at least my Lineage OS default camera app has a QR code reader too.
I don’t think my past two phones (one Android, one iOS) have built in QR scanning, or at least it’s not very discoverable. No fun to have to find something in an App Store when it all looks like 7 year old malware.
Re: Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update
#18I don't get why no barcode scanner app is shipped with Android. It's such a basic functionality. Edit: apparently it IS shipped on iOS and at least my Lineage OS default camera app has a QR code reader too.
I don’t think my past two phones (one Android, one iOS) have built in QR scanning, or at least it’s not very discoverable. No fun to have to find something in an App Store when it all looks like 7 year old malware.
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Re: Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update
#19I don't get why no barcode scanner app is shipped with Android. It's such a basic functionality. Edit: apparently it IS shipped on iOS and at least my Lineage OS default camera app has a QR code reader too.
I don’t think my past two phones (one Android, one iOS) have built in QR scanning, or at least it’s not very discoverable. No fun to have to find something in an App Store when it all looks like 7 year old malware.
You can point the builtin Camera app on iOS to any QR code, it will pick it up just fine.
Re: Barcode scanner app on Google Play infects 10M users with one update
#20I don't get why no barcode scanner app is shipped with Android. It's such a basic functionality. Edit: apparently it IS shipped on iOS and at least my Lineage OS default camera app has a QR code reader too.
I don’t think my past two phones (one Android, one iOS) have built in QR scanning, or at least it’s not very discoverable. No fun to have to find something in an App Store when it all looks like 7 year old malware.
Try your plain camera... this seems like such a hidden anti-feature though... no one I know has tried just the camera