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Comments
Google Play Apps Expose Users To Attack
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mjordan081
mjordan081,
 User Rank: Apprentice
6/21/2014 | 8:47:34 AM
Different than Apple?
I see some posts on here comparing this to Apple. Is there evidence somewhere that Apple vets their own store similarly? We know they vet their applications for content violations but know very little about their security vetting including inclusion of crypto keys within app code. Are we getting into a false sense of security based on assumption, or do we have verification about a similar process at Apple? Otherwise it would seem Google is taking the lead in security at this point if they're adopting this process.
RetiredUser
RetiredUser,
 User Rank: Ninja
6/19/2014 | 6:21:58 PM
Kudos to PlayDrone
I appreciate what the PlayDrone authors have done here.  The paper is excellent as a case study of not just the PlayDrone development, but also in terms of how one should go about documenting such work.  While we all knew the Google Play model and other stores that follow it is flawed from a configuration management/build/release and security perspective, PlayDrone has the potential to be acquired by Google as a security testing tool to identify risk and set up audits against future application releases.  Kudos.
Kelly Jackson Higgins
Kelly Jackson Higgins,
 User Rank: Strategist
6/19/2014 | 6:09:48 PM
Re: Next up...
So true, @Randy. It's long overdue for Google to raise the bar to Apple's standard for the app store. 
Randy Naramore
Randy Naramore,
 User Rank: Ninja
6/19/2014 | 3:51:02 PM
Re: Next up...
Google apps are not as scrutinized as apple apps, maybe this will be a hint that this needs to change. 
Marilyn Cohodas
Marilyn Cohodas,
 User Rank: Strategist
6/19/2014 | 3:46:39 PM
Re: Next up...
Egg on Google's face to be sure, but at least they are notifying app developers about the findings and "urging them" to remove the secret keys. I hope Google will be forthcoming about which developers have complied with their request and which have not. 
Zimdog
Zimdog,
 User Rank: Apprentice
6/19/2014 | 3:27:05 PM
Next up...
...google chrome extensions.  If Google has this problem in apps uploaded into the Play Store, you can bet there are a ton of malicious chrome extensions out there as well.  These guys need to come up with a crawler that will examine those.  Put a little more egg on Google's face...


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