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EFF: Don't Sacrifice Security on Mobile Devices

Posted Jan 23, 2011 13:53 UTC (Sun) by clump (subscriber, #27801)
Parent article: EFF: Don't Sacrifice Security on Mobile Devices

One troublesome aspect of Android phones (no experience with iPhones) is that updates come bundled as huge releases. I have an original Motorola Droid, and it received huge updates over the air. This seems backwards given the history of modular Linux distro management. If the kernel is updated, send a kernel update. If the browser needs an update, send a browser update. I think there's much evidence that the 'service pack' model of security and bug fix management doesn't work well.

I've since moved the phone to Cyanogen. Now I'm responsible for keeping it up to date, though sadly Cyanogen doesn't appear to do per-problem updates either.

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Evidence? Where is it?

Posted Jan 23, 2011 14:09 UTC (Sun) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

This seems backwards given the history of modular Linux distro management. If the kernel is updated, send a kernel update. If the browser needs an update, send a browser update

Well, in my experience such modular updates need a lot of hand-holding. Kernel is updated and X server no longer starts (rememeber that all phones include proprietary 3D acceleration module), browser is update and help no longer works (because new security settings don't work with old JS library in help system), etc. For the non-geeks partial updates are huge disaster. What they need are delta-updates (to save bandwidth if it's OTA update) and it looks like recent phones (like Nexus S) support them.

I think there's much evidence that the 'service pack' model of security and bug fix management doesn't work well.

Do you have any statistic? Anecdote evidence looks mixed: iPhone uses 'service pack' model of security and it's broken again and again, but XBox360 is totally different story (take a look on the price of JTAGed consoles: they are 2x-3x vs original price which suggests scarcity).

Evidence? Where is it?

Posted Jan 23, 2011 23:00 UTC (Sun) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

Well, Android actually has a pretty good architecture for data&apps, so in case of a catastrophic failure it should be easy to reset phone to factory settings. Also, there'll be lot less components than in a common Linux distribution (which can be stable, my Debian installation on a bunch of servers has been living without problems through 2 stable Debian revisions).

But the fact that Android is monolithic is already starting to take its toll. Vendors aren't going to be able to keep up with all the changes (and they little motivation to do this). So separating Android into a set of 'core' components and vendor-specific additions (aka 'crap') should do wonders.

Ongoing work on standardization in the ARM space should also help this.

EFF: Don't Sacrifice Security on Mobile Devices

Posted Jan 23, 2011 19:17 UTC (Sun) by Aissen (subscriber, #59976) [Link]

Latests Google updates for their Nexus are far more in line with what you describe (Android 2.3.1, 2.2.1, 2.2.2 and 2.3.2). These are all minor updates with security and bugfixes all over the place, but especially in the browser and application management (biggest attack surfaces).