Too many perfectly usable phones are put into a questionable security situation
by lack of vendor support for keeping key software up to date. But what’s the
actual risk of using an Android phone on a stock ROM without updates? What’s the
attack surface? It seems like most things that’d contact potentially malicious
software are web and messaging software, but that’s all done by apps which
continue to receive updates (at least until the android version is entirely
unsupported) eg. Webview, Firefox, Signal, etc. So are the main avenues for
attack then sketchy apps and wifi points? If one is careful to use a minimal set
of widely scrutinised apps and avoid connecting to wifi/bluetooth/etc. devices
of questionable provenance is it really taking that much of a risk to continue
using a device past EOL? Or do browsers rely on system libraries that have
plausible attack vectors? Perhaps images, video, font etc. rendering could be
compromised? At this point though, that stack must be quite hardened and mature,
it’d be major news for libjpg/ffmpeg to have a code-execution vulnerability?
Plus it seems unlikely that they wouldn’t just include this in webview/Firefox
as there must surely be millions of devices in this situation so why not take
the easy step of distributing a bit more in the APK? I’m not at all an Android
developer though, perhaps this is very naive and I’m missing something major?
Perhaps images, video, font etc. rendering could be compromised?
Yes, it already happen in the past.
Also the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth stack got exploited, like multiple kernel drivers.
But it shouldn’t be a matter of “in the past was X exploited?” but more on having a correct security posture.
Honestly if you are arguing about wasting a “perfectly working phone” you should blame it on the vendor, especially Android devices vendors have this let’s say “defect” of dropping the support after 4/5 years.
Also not going to talk about custom ROMs (with the super rare exclusion of some) managed by god knows who, without any security team behind.
Since even the NFC and Cellular Network stack got vulnerabilities the only way you would consider an old phone “safe” to use is just turning it into the equivalent of a local ARM server.
Also pretty fun seeing the replies in the original post talking about how Google Play store shouldn’t have malware on it.
Yes, it already happen in the past. Also the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth stack got exploited, like multiple kernel drivers.
But it shouldn’t be a matter of “in the past was X exploited?” but more on having a correct security posture.
Honestly if you are arguing about wasting a “perfectly working phone” you should blame it on the vendor, especially Android devices vendors have this let’s say “defect” of dropping the support after 4/5 years.
Also not going to talk about custom ROMs (with the super rare exclusion of some) managed by god knows who, without any security team behind.
Since even the NFC and Cellular Network stack got vulnerabilities the only way you would consider an old phone “safe” to use is just turning it into the equivalent of a local ARM server.
Also pretty fun seeing the replies in the original post talking about how Google Play store shouldn’t have malware on it.