Google has just released the first developer preview of Android 14, the next major version of the world's most popular mobile operating system. This new version comes with a range of security and privacy enhancements. Apps will now have to declare how they plan to use certain phone features, and data exchange between them will be limited. Additionally, any files downloaded by apps will be read-only. One of the highlighted security features of Android 14 is the blocking of malicious apps that target older API levels, which can be used to abuse sensitive permissions. All apps targeting Android 14 must declare if they need to receive information from other apps or if they should be limited to system Broadcasts. This is to prevent malicious apps from intercepting or misusing broadcasts meant for other apps. To further protect user data, Android 14 will also restrict the sending of Intents that don't have a specified recipient. This will stop malware from intercepting intents sent from other apps and reading their contents. Another security feature of Android 14 is Safer dynamic code loading, which will limit all files downloaded by an application to read-only mode. This will help prevent code-injection scenarios involving manipulated executables. Finally, Android 14 will block the installation of harmful apps that target SDK versions lower than 23, which can be used to bypass security and privacy protections. This will also make it impossible for users to install apps that haven't been updated for some time. The second developer preview of Android 14 is expected to be released in March 2023, and users can currently test the new system by flashing the available system images on a Google Pixel device.
This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Wed, 08 Feb 2023 18:09:02 +0000