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What are - if any - the security implications of the signature spoofing that MicroG requires? I've considered trying to squeeze MicroG into GrapheneOS, but Grap
by z3c0 7y ago
What are - if any - the security implications of the signature spoofing that MicroG requires? I've considered trying to squeeze MicroG into GrapheneOS, but GrapheneOS currently doesn't support signature spoofing. LineageOS does, but unfortunately my device isn't supported by LineageOS.
- _underfl0w_ 7y agoIf an app has the permission to spoof signatures (which must be specified in its manifest - I.e. it's not a permission that's grantable with `pm` ) it can spoof itself as being any other app, if my understanding is correct. This opens the door to sketchy apps pretending to be system apps, then man-in-the-middling your data, potentially leaking sensitive info, etc. Generally the signatures are there as a tamper-proofing mechanism. Some builds (e.g. official-ish LineageOS for MicroG ROMs) have a hardcoded notification that's shown for the signature spoof permission so it can't happen in the background, though. The possibility of widening the attack surface just triggers security paranoia in those of us ditching Big G for privacy reasons - that's why there's controversy over it at all.
- baroffoos 7y agoThe microg lineageOS builds only allow system apps to spoof signatures so it should be fine. And even if any app could do it its still only bad if you get apps from an untrusted source.
- krageon 7y ago(Vanilla) LineageOS does not support signature spoofing, only the MicroG fork of it does.