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arXiv:1904.05572cs.CR

The Android Platform Security Model (2023)

René Mayrhofer, Jeffrey Vander Stoep, Chad Brubaker, Dianne Hackborn, Bram Bonné, Güliz Seray Tuncay, Roger Piqueras Jover, Michael A. Specter

Abstract

Android is the most widely deployed end-user focused operating system. With its growing set of use cases encompassing communication, navigation, media consumption, entertainment, finance, health, and access to sensors, actuators, cameras, or microphones, its underlying security model needs to address a host of practical threats in a wide variety of scenarios while being useful to non-security experts. To support this flexibility, Android's security model must strike a difficult balance between security, privacy, and usability for end users; provide assurances for app developers; and maintain system performance under tight hardware constraints. This paper aims to both document the assumed threat model and discuss its implications, with a focus on the ecosystem context in which Android exists. We analyze how different security measures in past and current Android implementations work together to mitigate these threats, and, where there are special cases in applying the security model in practice; we discuss these deliberate deviations and examine their impact.

arXiv comments
Journal reference
ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security, Volume 24, Issue 3, Article No. 19, 2021, pp 1-35
DOI
doi:10.1145/3448609
Subjects
cs.CRCryptography and Security cs.OSOperating Systems

On Hacker News

Linked by 5 identifiable commenters in 6 comments across 4 threads, from Mar 2022 to Jul 2026. Found in 5 HN submissions from Apr 2019 to May 2026. Open submission discussions.

Comments linking this paper, per year.

Discussed in comments4 threads

  1. Android May Soon Restrict On-Device ADB 1 comment
  2. Motorola GrapheneOS devices will be bootloader unlockable/relockable 1 comment

    • Of course the topic as a whole is much more complex than that, but I'll try to summarize it. Android has 3 systems of access control [1][2]: - Discretionary Access Control, i.e. the standard Unix file permissions - Mandatory Access Control, implemented in the form of the SELinux…

      AndromxdaView on HNParent context

  3. Everyone knows all the apps on your phone 1 comment

    • A more recent (2023) sandboxing + isolation overview by the Android team: https://arxiv.org/html/1904.05572v3/ (section 4.3)

      ignoramousView on HNParent context

  4. F-Droid – alternative to Google Play store 3 comments

    • Do you have a citation for your claims about the Android security model? The only things I can find about app stores in the paper by Google[0] run directly counter to your idea: > Android explicitly supports installation of apps from arbitrary sources, which led to the…

      lolinderView on HNParent context

    • There's a paper by several Google employees describing it. I haven't read it, just skimmed and searched keywords, but near as I can tell it doesn't mention anything like what the OP thinks it does: https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.05572 See my other comment for what I did find, which…

      lolinderView on HNParent context

    • Theres a lot more to the android app sandbox than just running processes as seperate users. Theoretically something similar could be implemented in some other 'typical linux system'. It would be a huge undertaking. If you are thinking about security need to consider not only…

      gradelessView on HNParent context

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