Bloatware And Android Security

A study conducted by researchers from North Carolina State University tested the vulnerability of eight different smartphones. Android’s permissions-based security models allows permissions granted to one pre-installed bloatware app to be leaked to another without the user knowing.

The eight smartphones tested by the team were:

• HTC Legend
• HTC EVO 4G
• HTC Wildfire S
• Motorola Droid
• Motorola Droid X
• Samsung Epic 4G
• Google Nexus One
• Google Nexus S

Below is a video of the security leak in action:

Here is a link to the full study, with findings for each phone (pdf document). The bottom line is that bloatware is making Android phones less secure.