7 ms·

Why is it there? Hanlon's razor, incompetence. What if a border guard has access to your _unlocked phone_ and can re-anable an app? It would be easier for the

• strcat 2y ago
  It's there on Pixels with the stock OS and other devices with Verizon support because it's one of the apps that are part of the standard suite for fully supporting Verizon's network. Verizon doesn't do things in standard ways so functionality like Wi-Fi calling is missing without these apps. It's not at all Pixel specific. Verizon included it with these apps because they used it for demos in their stores. They don't use it anymore, so Pixels removed it in Android 15 as their response to this. That's public as part of the Android 15 Beta. No actual security impact was found from this so they didn't consider it a security issue but removed it anyway. The other Verizon apps which actually get used are still there, but only active when you have an active Verizon SIM. They're essentially uninstalled (packages fully disabled) when not using a Verizon SIM. It's extra attack surface for Android Verizon users in general. Retail demo app part of it isn't actual attack surface, so this whole news cycle is bogus. The other apps are extra attack surface, but they're useful and needed for proper Verizon support because they refuse to be normal. ADB shell gives far more access than this app has so it doesn't matter as a physical attack vector for someone with the password.