Rowhammer, rooting Android.

[whoololon]

I know it's not about hours, but I was struck by this news from ArsTechnica, in which it develops the existence of applications capable of accessing "root" permissions on Android, regardless of whether the device is "rooted" or not.

According to the source, devices from manufacturers Motorola, LG and Samsung are in the crosshairs of these attacks, which bypass the latest security patches and only need a few seconds to take control of the device in question.

For the moment, the solution to this problem is neither here nor expected, although from Google they assure that "they are working on it" to offer a long-term solution.

The thing is that, as you read, the Drammer issue has the feeling of having more meat than it seems; and perhaps smartphones are a simple "test bench" for projects of greater scope and impact.

To you who understand more, what do you think?

[cobito]

The truth is that this topic is a bit scary because it doesn't only happen on smartphones but on any computer. And what's more, as the density of transistors continues to increase, it will be easier to carry out.

Moreover, it will probably only be solvable at the hardware level and we have already seen that hardware security systems are quite ephemeral.

[whoololon]

@cobito What I suspected, after I had been reading more about the topic, is that indeed the issue was not limited to portable devices, but involved Linux.

That sanctuary in which it has remained all these years, safe from everything that only happened to Windows, is no longer such; and the reason is Android, and iOS.
Anyone who wants to "annoy" those systems, inherently also does so to the base pillar.

At least, that is the impression I have.

[kynes]

It's like the stupidity that Macs don't have viruses. It's not that there weren't security holes, it's just that it wasn't as profitable to develop a virus for macOS as it was for Windows because of the number of users. If a platform increases in number of users, it's normal that the number of malware developers interested in finding security flaws increases, it's the law of supply and demand.

Android and iOS have a very high number of users, with very juicy user information, it's normal that they try to crack it, and there's one thing that's clear, with enough time and interested people, a security flaw is always found.