Andre Yoskowitz
25 Jan 2015 19:52
Over the past month, there have been multiple major reports relating to the web security flaw of older versions of Android that could allow for remote attacks.
The flaw is related to WebView, the mobile framework that allows apps to display websites without a separate browser.
Adrian Ludwig has posted a long Google+ article discussing why Google cannot upgrade older versions of Android and what hundreds of millions of users can do to stay protected. Read it in full, here:
Following public discussion of vulnerabilities in versions of Webkit last week, I've had a number of people ask questions about security of browsers and WebView on Android 4.3 (Jellybean) and earlier. I want to provide an update on what we're doing and guidance on steps that users and developers can take to be safe, even if your device is not yet running Lollipop.
Keeping software up to date is one of the greatest challenges in security. Google invests heavily in making sure Android and Chrome are as safe as possible and doing so requires that they be updated very frequently. With Google's assistance, Android device manufacturers (OEMs) have been moving rapidly to improve the rate that devices are updated and to ship devices with the most recent versions of Android. We provide patches for the current branch of Android in the Android Open Source Project (AOSP)[https://source.android.com/] and directly provide Android partners with patches for at least the last two major versions of the operating system.
Improving WebView and browser security is one of the areas where we've made the greatest progress. Android 4.4 (KitKat) allows OEMs to quickly deliver binary updates of WebView provided by Google, and in Android 5.0 (Lollipop), Google delivers these updates directly via Google Play, so OEMs won't need to do anything. Until recently we have also provided backports for the version of WebKit that is used by Webview on Android 4.3 and earlier. But WebKit alone is over 5 million lines of code and hundreds of developers are adding thousands of new commits every month, so in some instances applying vulnerability patches to a 2+ year old branch of WebKit required changes to significant portions of the code and was no longer practical to do safely. With the advances in Android 4.4, the number of users that are potentially affected by legacy WebKit security issues is shrinking every day as more and more people upgrade or get new devices.
There are also steps users and developers can take to mitigate the risk of potential exploitation of WebKit vulnerabilities without updating to Lollipop. Using a browser that is updated through Google Play and using applications that follow security best practices by only loading content from trusted sources into WebView will help protect users.
When browsing on any platform, you should make sure to use a browser that provides its own content renderer and is regularly updated. For instance on Android, Chrome [http://goo.gl/elSkZX] or Firefox [http://goo.gl/Q5X6e3] are both great options since they are securely updated through Google Play often: Chrome is supported on Android 4.0 and greater, Firefox supports Android 2.3 and greater. Chrome has been the default browser for all Nexus and Google Play edition devices since 2012 and is pre-installed on many other popular devices (including Galaxy devices from Samsung, the G series from LG, the HTC One series, and the Motorola X and G), so you may already be using it.
Using an updatable browser will protect you from currently known security issues, and since it can be updated in the future it will also protect you against any issues that might be found in the future. It will also allow you to take advantage of new features and capabilities that are being introduced to these browsers.
If you are an application developer, there are also steps you should take to keep users safe. Application developers should make sure that they are following all security best practices[http://goo.gl/b6a3ta]. In particular, to resolve this issue when using WebView[http://goo.gl/FKeouw], developers should confirm that only trusted content (e.g. loaded from a local source or over HTTPS) is displayed within WebViews in their application. For maximum security when rendering content from the open web, consider providing your own renderer on Android 4.3 and earlier so that you can keep it up to date with the latest security patches.