Protecting an operating system like Android is no mean feat, especially with a store offering several million applications and a plethora of alternative stores.
The Mountain View company recently carried out a major cleanup by removing hundreds of thousands of applications considered abandoned from its platform.
A healthy decision, which however does not prevent most of these applications from being obtained outside the official store, the Play Store. It was also possible to redownload them if they had been present on the terminal before. A godsend for hackers who target the large number of devices running several years old versions of Android.
Hunt for malware
Google plans to step up its efforts with Android 14. According to the site 9to5Google, the next update will prevent the installation of applications that are specifically targeted for older versions of Android and are no longer updated regularly. Furthermore, it will no longer be possible to load APKs directly on the smartphone (side loading) and stores will no longer be able to install them automatically. The goal is to gradually roll back time (and operating system versions) to protect as many devices as possible in order to stop the alarming development of malicious applications.
An available exit port
If you still need to install an outdated application, it will still be possible. The published note on the Android Open Source project specifies that it will always be possible to go through the command interface and create an exception. A somewhat fiddly process, which should avoid most accidental installations.
#Android #prevent #installation #outdated #apps
0 Comments