2 ms·

This is a very big hypothetical. The app stores don't have this precise of targeting, so they'd need to build entirely new distribution functionality in additio

This is a very big hypothetical. The app stores don't have this precise of targeting, so they'd need to build entirely new distribution functionality in addition to the backdoored app. Given that Google currently leaks like a freaking sieve and has a monorepo where everybody has access to almost all of the code, it is difficult to believe that this plan would go off without a hitch.

SheinhardtWigCo 3y ago
Certainly a large dose of cynicism is needed to even entertain the possibility. My own cynicism stems from the Snowden disclosures and other leaks. I think there are more possibilities than you're considering. As far as I know, once a backdoored app is signed with the correct key, there's nothing stopping the partner CDN(s) from serving it to targeted users. In the simplest case, that's about 5 lines of nginx config. Also, the ability to stratify OS updates already exists because there are many combinations of country + carrier + device model + user permissions (e.g. special rules allowing internal/external developers and carrier employees to install development builds).
- UncleMeat 3y ago
  > As far as I know, once a backdoored app is signed with the correct key, there's nothing stopping the partner CDN(s) from serving it to targeted users. This is true for native software distributed by various linux distro maintainers too.
sneak 3y ago
> The app stores don't have this precise of targeting This is false. Apple's OS-level software update tools have had the ability to target specific hardware items (ie serial numbers, ethernet MAC addresses, etc) for well over a decade.
rdtsc 3y ago
> so they'd need to build entirely new distribution functionality in addition to the backdoored app. In to order to do debugging or a slow rollout, I can see them implementing this in their backend. They’re can target updates at least by some combination of properties. Once that’s in place it might not be hard to throw a unique identifier in there as well.

SheinhardtWigCo 3y ago

Certainly a large dose of cynicism is needed to even entertain the possibility. My own cynicism stems from the Snowden disclosures and other leaks. I think there are more possibilities than you're considering. As far as I know, once a backdoored app is signed with the correct key, there's nothing stopping the partner CDN(s) from serving it to targeted users. In the simplest case, that's about 5 lines of nginx config. Also, the ability to stratify OS updates already exists because there are many combinations of country + carrier + device model + user permissions (e.g. special rules allowing internal/external developers and carrier employees to install development builds).

UncleMeat 3y ago
> As far as I know, once a backdoored app is signed with the correct key, there's nothing stopping the partner CDN(s) from serving it to targeted users. This is true for native software distributed by various linux distro maintainers too.

sneak 3y ago

> The app stores don't have this precise of targeting This is false. Apple's OS-level software update tools have had the ability to target specific hardware items (ie serial numbers, ethernet MAC addresses, etc) for well over a decade.

rdtsc 3y ago

> so they'd need to build entirely new distribution functionality in addition to the backdoored app. In to order to do debugging or a slow rollout, I can see them implementing this in their backend. They’re can target updates at least by some combination of properties. Once that’s in place it might not be hard to throw a unique identifier in there as well.