Google Online Security Blog: The Android Platform Security Model

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The Android Platform Security Model

18. April 2019

Posted by Jeff Vander Stoep, Android Security & Privacy Team

demonstrateseffectivenesstheseimprovementsThe Android Platform Security Model

The security model which has implicitly informed the Android platform’s security design from the beginning, but has not been formally published or described outside of Google.

The context in which this security model must operate, including the scale of the Android ecosystem and its many form factors and use cases.

The complex threat model Android must address.

How Android’s reference implementation in the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) enacts the security model.

How Android’s security systems have evolved over time to address the threat model.

1Acknowledgements: This post leveraged contributions from René Mayrhofer, Chad Brubaker, and Nick Kralevich Notes

The term ‘consent’ here and in the paper is used to refer to various technical methods of declaring or enforcing a party’s intent, rather than the legal requirement or standard found in many privacy legal regimes around the world. ↩