In light of major spyware news from the likes of RCMP and the infamous Pegasus from NSO, where the hackers were able to see even encrypted messages from the Signal app, I have some questions concerning the security of Samsung devices.
What if these spyware tools were somehow able to disguise itself as a system process - or reconfigure integrity checks to ignore the spyware altogether? What reassurances can Samsung provide to us proving that this is not possible - or that, if it is possible, then how do we identify and correct it?
Additionally, how to ensure that the display/screen output signal is secure and not compromised? Can any other system processes access it outside of the OS? Can an app hijack the accessibility permissions of another app (like a password manager)? How to check which apps have recorded the screen, screenshotted it, or have the permissions to do so - and if they do, then how to prevent it?
Do you mean sources of information concerning the RCMP's use of spyware, and Pegasus? They've been well covered by many reputable news outlets. A Google search would readily show them. I'll provide one source for each (app won't let me post exact links).
1) RCMP: Global News article by Alex Boutilier dated 8th Aug 2022 - story ID 9044296 2) Pegasus: Al Jazeera article dated 8th Feb 2022 on Pegasus
If you mean sources of information for the questions I'm asking, then no, I obviously cannot; hence why I'm *asking* them. It's precisely *because* I don't know that I'm asking here so that Android developers (or other relevant people) smarter than me can help shed some light on these things by allaying, confirming, or providing nuance to my suspicions.
Our philosophy is to take a holistic approach to security to ensure that, at all levels of the device, we are protecting user' security and privacy at all times. We aim to maintain your trust and to provide agile security incident response at the same time.
