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authorDaniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com>2020-04-30 16:31:51 -0400
committerDaniel Micay <danielmicay@gmail.com>2020-04-30 16:39:54 -0400
commitc49cad3cf95c674dfdab6d9a2ded0619fc2a5033 (patch)
treedb0a3f1104407e3a2bf42c3a03fcb7125ef14cfe /static
parent172960bd50d602fe99a018f83654d954eb576d52 (diff)
apps can detect device model and OS
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@@ -275,6 +275,13 @@
remove a legacy form of access to the serial number by legacy apps, which was still
around for compatibility.</p>
+ <p>Apps can determine the model of the device (such as it being a Pixel 3) either
+ directly or indirectly through the properties of the hardware and software. There
+ isn't a way to avoid this short of the OS supporting running apps in a virtual machine
+ with limited functionality and hardware acceleration. Hiding the CPU/SoC model would
+ require not even using basic hardware virtualization support and these things could
+ probably still be detected via performance measurements.</p>
+
<h3 id="non-hardware-identifiers">
<a href="#non-hardware-identifiers">What about non-hardware identifiers?</a>
</h3>
@@ -282,13 +289,15 @@
<p>In addition to not having a way to identify the hardware, apps cannot directly
identify the installation of the OS on the hardware. Apps only have a small portion of
the OS configuration exposed to them and there is not much for device owners to change
- which could identify their installation. Apps can identify their own app installation
- via their app data and can directly (until that's removed) or indirectly identify a
- profile. Profiles should be used when separate identities are desired. Profiles can be
- used as temporary ephemeral identifies by creating them for a specific need and then
- deleting them. The rest of this answer only provides more technical details, so you
- can stop reading here if you only want an overview and actionable advice (i.e. use
- profiles as identities not inherently tied to each other).</p>
+ which could identify their installation. Apps can detect that they're being run on
+ GrapheneOS via the privacy and security features placing further restrictions on them
+ and hardening them against further exploitation. Apps can identify their own app
+ installation via their app data and can directly (until that's removed) or indirectly
+ identify a profile. Profiles should be used when separate identities are desired.
+ Profiles can be used as temporary ephemeral identifies by creating them for a specific
+ need and then deleting them. The rest of this answer only provides more technical
+ details, so you can stop reading here if you only want an overview and actionable
+ advice (i.e. use profiles as identities not inherently tied to each other).</p>
<p>Apps can generate their own 128-bit or larger random value and use that as an
identifier for the app installation. Apps can create data in their app-specific