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Everyone knows all the apps on your phone

(peabee.substack.com)
1192 points gniting | 1 comments | 29 Mar 25 21:26 UTC | HN request time: 0.209s | source
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captn3m0 ◴[30 Mar 25 02:37 UTC] No.43520750[source]▶
The ACTION_MAIN loophole has been written about before: https://commonsware.com/blog/2020/04/05/android-r-package-vi...

Google refuses to patch this. I wonder what would happen if you submit it to the Android VDP as a permission bypass.

There’s also this SO question by the author about the bypass: https://stackoverflow.com/q/79527331

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3abiton ◴[30 Mar 25 04:13 UTC] No.43521275[source]▶
> Google refuses to patch this.

That's why projects like XPL-Extended (and previously XPrivacyLua), are an absolute need. I never run an android phone without these.

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ignoramous ◴[30 Mar 25 08:21 UTC] No.43522389[source]▶
XPrivactLua and other XposedMod/Magisk extensions break open the app sandbox. It is better to restrict running those on usereng/eng builds (test devices). For prod builds (user devices), I'd recommend using Work Profiles (GrapheneOS supports upto 31 in parallel) or Private Spaces (on Android 15+) to truly isolate apps from one another.
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v1ne ◴[30 Mar 25 11:06 UTC] No.43523196[source]▶
The question is: Who is the beneficiary of the app sandbox? Is it you, the user, because no malicious processes can taper with your apps? Or is it the corporations, because they prevent you from modifying their apps – which makes you a pure consumer?

I think, for the tech-savvy, the latter is more accurate and I think it is very important to be able to crack open these sandboxes and tinker with processes. Be it to inject ad blockers, automate them, modify their appearance, etc. It should be a right of a user to be able to do these things.

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1. subscribed ◴[30 Mar 25 11:53 UTC] No.43523395[source]▶
I, the user.

Malicious apps sneak through the vetting process all the time.

Genuine, honest apps have to process unsafe content (be it we pages, messages) all the time.

One exploit should at most make single App vulnerable, not expose everything I have on my phone.

Strong, restrictive sandboxing, memory and execution protections are the only safe way.

And how is destroying the sandboxing related to having more rights as a consumer? You could still patch and repack them in the way Lucky Patcher does with ads, for example?