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Android Nougat Won't Boot If Your Phone's Software Is Corrupt Or Has Malware (androidauthority.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report on Android Authority: In a bid to increase the security of the Android operating system, Google has introduced a new check for malware as part of the boot process in all Android devices. Until Marshmallow, Android devices ran the check as part of the boot process and in Marshmallow, the phone would warn you that it was compromised but would continue to let the phone boot up. In Nougat however, Google is taking this security check to the next level. On the Android Developer's blog, the company explains that Android Nougat strictly enforces that boot check, giving you far more than a warning. The good news is that if your phone is infected with types of malware, it will refuse to boot or will boot in a limited capacity mode (presumably akin to safe mode). The bad news however, is that some non-malicious corruption of data could also mean that your phone will refuse to boot up. Considering that corrupted data may not always be malicious -- even a single-byte error could cause your phone to refuse to boot up -- Android Nougat brings additional code to guard against corruption.
Has anyone at Google thought about the deaths that this might cause? If I need to dial 911 because I just severed my foot, I don't care about my phone having malware. I need to dial.
Then how do you fix it and remove the Malware/corruption?
Android Nougat Won't Boot If Your Phone's Software Is Corrupt Or Has Malware unapproved by google
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
If your phone won't boot, how will you get rid of the malware without losing all your data???
They could be, you know, preventing the malware to get in in the first place, something they're reasonably well positioned for. That would welp ensure that you have a working device. Instead they're finding excuses to burn down your phone, leaving you bereft of service. This is not good service, google.
So we're back to the sad reality that if you want to have both your phone and the smarts it's sporting these days, you need two phones. One for function, and one for fancy shmancy smarts.
TFS is rather concerning but it seems to be conjecture and interpretation of a dev's blog. Presumably (well, I hope at least) there will be some documentation about what the procedure is for turning off the boot-lock or what ever.
This sounds like an excellent complementary feature for malware to trigger for a DoS attack.
- Henrik
- when the Shadows descend -
Wow, this is like AI. I'll bet this is powered by a Deep Neural Net using Deep Learning.
Three of the most important industries of mankind will never be open
1 . Pharma
2. Petrochemicals & energy
3. Telecom
This is not the way to do it. Give us a "safe mode" if you please, so we still have a phone.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
... be as unreliable as Windows.
Good job, Google.
I apologize for the lack of a signature.
As a primary communications device, instability in a cell-phone operating system is not a mere nuisance and frustration but can cost people dearly if not available for contacting Emergency Services when needed. A fail safe mode that instructs people to restore to a clean image or have the device checked out is what Apple's IOS has been doing all along and In my belief it is a big part of why Apple's IOS is perceived to be a more stable OS then Android
You mean after trying to evade arrest and waving a knife/gun/axe around? Or just when you get into an armed fight with a cop and lose? Or you decide to run at a cop, even though there's a gun pointing at you and you've been told to stop? Or you've just shot a cop and don't like bullets traveling in the opposite direction? Or you decided on assisted suicide, but didn't tell the cop he was assisting? Or you don't behave aggressively, comply with any lawful requests the officer makes, but still get shot? Because that last one happens all the time!
Like, say, custom firmware that the manufacturer of the phone doesn't want you to install so you can't get rid of the shovelware he got paid to dump onto it and that you cannot deinstall?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Nuke it from orbit, its the only way to be sure....
Ignoring the implied hype in TFA, they quote the original blog post:
"This means that a device with a corrupt boot image or verified partition will not boot
or
will boot in a limited capacity with user consent."
(line breaks added for clarity).
Eventually what will happen is your device will not boot if it detects "unapproved" code. That is coming.
It's not true that a single byte error will cause verification to fail. Nougat also adds forward error correction (Reed-Solomon coding) to the image structure, so very, very few random errors can cause enough corruption to be unrecoverable and cause verification to fail. It's not impossible that this will happen, indeed given that there are billions of Android devices it probably *will* happen, once or twice. But it will be well below the threshold of other sorts of low-probability catastrophic hardware failures.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
if there is malware in it, make it so the android device boots up in safe mode, it only connects to a google server and installs a malware/virus cleaner app and runs it to wipe out all the malware & etc. then reboots your device and reconnects to google to confirm it is clean
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
...until just about any OS won't boot unless it is only running approved software (i.e. the software company has paid a big fat fee) or the user has turned off any features (telemetry, spyware by the OS vendor, ad blockers, etc.) that the manufacturer wants to force you to use. It'll be like those DVDs you BUY but won't let you skip over the ads at the front of the movie.
I can see why people would be less angry at Google for doing it than Microsoft given the differences in circumstance.
I can't. Most people don't that use custom ROMs, don't do it for the cool factor, but because there are things they want to do with their phone that otherwise can't because the crippled capabilities of Android/OEMs, or because they want an uniform experience across devices.
Locking the firmware ( with no way to disable this lock ) would enrage me (and a lot of people).
So, if your device is stuck in this state how do you recover your stuff off of it?
Locked bootloaders are nothing new.
What the new feature in Android N is about is the ability to add cross-block redundancy to the system image so that a few defective flash blocks can be corrected. There was a posting on the official Android Developers blog that went into quite some details about how they reduced the storage overhead and prepared it for the typical failure scenario of Flash memory.
I'm probably being ignorant, but if they can do this, why can't they stop said malware from installing in the first place?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
on att an unlocked phone = locked out
You must be new to Slashdot. You're supposed to get hysterical over an imagined outrage.
...are not voice calls or text messages: it's search, and it shows.
Where is ublock for Chrome on Android? That says all you need to know about Google's intentions on mobile.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This might have been a troll, but it's a valid point. In the US, any phone that is turned on needs to be able to make an emergency 911 call, regardless of network access / bill payment / identity / SIM card / etc.
For a phone already turned on, you can do this from the lock screen. On my new LG G5 with PIN required on boot, you can do this from the PIN/boot entry screen.
It does raise the valid question: Is this a further check prior to the ... boot loader? PIN boot phase? If so, how much of the phone is and isn't running prior to the remainder of the OS load and what is or isn't "secure"... The meta has to bottom out somewhere, and unless the phone is actually broken, regs might require at least the phone connection to work.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
Or be forward thinking and alert to possible ways new technologies might be exploited by big business to increase their profit margin at all costs.
Including the cost of fines, as long as profits from the action still outweigh the cost of legal defense.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
No one cares about enraged, entitled douche-bags like you anymore. It's gotten old. Go ahead being a rage-monkey, but don't expect sympathy as you embarrass yourself by ranting like an entitled brat.
You really just identified yourself there. But you're right. We are tired of you, and don't care about the trash you bring to the table.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
..as a proud owner of a TMobile Galaxy S3, I have exactly zero fear that Nougat (7.0) will brick my phone, as TMobile long ago stopped bothering to update such an ancient device.
I believe I'm still on 4.3, never to see Kit Kat.
-Styopa
Hmmm...
So Google released Marshmallow, which in my opinion was an overall step backwards for Android, now they're going to do this? It's almost like Google wants everyone to stop using Android.
What if you have to make an emergency phone call? Like, you've been shot by a police officer and you need to call 911?
Just ask kindly for a cell phone from the police. They'll send a robot to give you one.
of course when all software/hardware is shutdown what will the hackers have to do?