Google’s Android is yet to be counted among the most secured platforms. But ahead of any major flaw, developers have patched over 275,000 Android apps.
The Android Security team launched the Google Play App Security Improvement (ASI) programme in April 2016 to detect security issues in apps and help developer release their fixes. Since then, Google has detected and notified developers of 11 new security issues that helped more than 90,000 developers to over 275,000 apps on the Play store.
More checks on the board
Google engineers were initially scanning for embedded Amazon Web Services (AWS) credentials. But with the changing behaviour of vulnerabilities, the search giant added embedded Keystore files to the list, and the security-focused programme was further expanded with the checks for 17 vulnerabilities in past few months.
In 2017, the Android security initiative is even upgrading with new changes to notify app developers of 26 potential security issues. Google has also developed a specific ASI web page that allows developers to find information about all the existing security issues from a unified address. The page has links to some tutorials and contacts to reach the support team.
Google’s latest tweak to ASI is likely to reduce instances of vulnerabilities within Android operating system. It would overcome issues like Gooligan and ADUPS that had recently emerged and impacted a large number of devices around the globe.
