Tuesday, March 24, 2015

security - Can Applications With Root Access Modify Their Own Permissions?


For rooted phones, there are several apps which require root privileges. Knowing this, the user does allow the app to get root. Now, the app would have been installed with a set of x permissions, say INTERNET, LOCATION. Now, on gaining root, is it possible for the app to secretly (or not) give itself extra permissions eg. BLUETOOTH ? I read somewhere that the Apps requiring INTERNET or BLUETOOTH permissions are added to a user group which has access to these device files. So, can a rooted app associate itself to that group and gain the permission ?



Answer



Yes, all rooted apps theoretically can use the entire system, including all facilities that otherwise need app permissions. They could also modify the permissions database "under the radar" to grant its non-root part more permissions than were requested at install time.


You have to trust root-using apps not to violate their given permissions.


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 ...