Android Will Scan Sideloaded Apps’ Code For Threats During Installs

Android Will Scan Sideloaded Apps’ Code For Threats During Installs

App sideloading is somewhat of a controversial topic, as Apple has famously refused to allow any non-App Store installs for safety and privacy reasons, despite regulatory pressure. Android however, has always been much more open in nature and has allowed sideloading for pretty much the entirety of its existence.

While most people would install apps from their respective app store platforms (Google Play or App Store), sometimes apps are not listed officially for various reasons (such as licensing issues, avoiding imposed profit sharing and more) and requires users to install the app from the web. Naturally, it’s not the safest thing to do – hackers can easily change the code of the app and turn it malicious – and Google has since added a few extra measures into Android to let users double check what they’re installing.

Now, Google is testing a new feature in India where it’ll actively scan the app “at the code-level” at real-time to check for threats. In the past, this scanning is done with a fairly rudimentary signature-based detection method, which checks the app against a known list of malicious apps. Obviously, this is not useful if the app in question is an emerging threat, or even a “day-0” malware that exploits previously unknown loopholes.

This new code-scanning approach however is more akin to your actual antivirus scanning capabilities. The process will still involve the aforementioned signature detection, but it’ll leave it up to the user to initiate the code-level scan. Depending on the results, you can either proceed as usual, or abort if it detects potential threats. Google says this feature is expected to roll out to other countries in the coming months.

Source: PCMag

Pokdepinion: That should help at keeping threats in check for Android devices.