Monday, December 29, 2014

security - How does an app reads an OTP SMS without SMS permission?


I have recently installed an Android app from the Play Store. While registering in it, I realized that it was able to read my message of OTP without even asking for my permission to read the message.


I have AOSP Extended 5.8 with the August security patch. It's an Android Oreo 8.1 based custom rom.



Answer



Verification by OTP uses a different API which doesn't need read SMS permission. You can read more here Perform SMS Verification on a Server


Hence, the app isn't reading your SMS but using a separate channel to read specially formatted text messages


I learnt of this when an Xposed module to block permissions did not work as I expected (similar case) and the developer explained the reason


No comments:

Post a Comment

samsung galaxy s 2 - Cannot restore Kies backup after firmware upgrade

I backed up my Samsung Galaxy S2 on Kies before updating to Ice Cream Sandwich. After the upgrade I tried to restore, but the restore fails ...