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149

Android Developer Verification: Threat masquerading as Protection (f-droid.org)

submitted 1 week ago by kbal@fedia.io to c/technology@beehaw.org

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Disguising itself as the innocuously-titled “Android Developer Verifier” (ADV) process, this trojan horse runs surreptitiously in the background as a system service with full root privileges, quietly awaiting an activation signal. The service cannot be blocked, disabled, or removed. Unlike a commonplace bit of malware, this extraordinary strain won’t be detected and neutralized by Play Protect (the malware scanning and remediation service that is installed on all Android Certified devices). In fact, Play Protect is itself the vector through which this virus is transmitted and installed.

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[–] verstra@programming.dev 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Which mobile OS are you guys using? How well do they work? How do they compare to stock android?

I'm thinking about flashing /e/OS over Android.

[–] bad1080@piefed.social 3 points 6 days ago

crdroid, which is a fork of lineage os with a few notable QoL improvements i can't live without

[–] foreverknew@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I'm currently using /e/os as there are no official custom Roms for my phone and they offer a GSI version (works on a wide variety of devices). For me it runs flawlessly, but I don't use any apps dependent on Google Play Services, so YMMV.

I think their default apps are very usable and having MicroG on board for location services is pretty handy. Their contacts/calendar/note syncing via Murena also make the user experience quite seemless.

I'd recommend it.

Edit: If you have any questions about the OS, feel free to ask away

[–] verstra@programming.dev 2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Does things like gmail, google maps and g calendar work? If not, are there workarounds?

[–] yessikg@fedia.io 2 points 6 days ago

They do work

[–] foreverknew@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago

I think installing the apps via Aurora Store and running them should definitely work. There might be issues with syncing them to your Google account though. You can add the account via MicroG (preinstalled) but since I have no experience with running GApps on /e/os I can't attest to how well this will work, if at all.

You can install Lineage OS and add GApps though, if you're looking for a custom ROM but need extensive support for Google apps.

Might I ask what's your incentive to switch to /e/os? Installing Google apps kind of counteracts the privacy aspect.