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Message-ID: <871ribhxyi.fsf@canidae.wired.pri>
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 2020 08:00:05 +1100
From: Brian May <brian@...uxpenguins.xyz>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: major changes if gnu/linux dominates the desktop and/or mobile market?
Greg KH <greg@...ah.com> writes:
>> https://www.theregister.com/2015/06/17/debian_chromium_hubbub/
>> Chrome, Debian Linux, and the secret binary blob download riddle
>> Browser snuck proprietary voice-snoop code into distro
>
> I don't understand the question here, that was something over 5 years
> ago. How is that relevant for "mobile devices" that run Linux today?
That link looks like a once of issue that Debian had with the
distribution of Chromium. Which was probably fixed years ago.
More generally, in a typical Android install, there is closed source
software - drivers, firmware, Google APIs, Google Play. Before you even
get to installing closed source apps from Google Play.
These are a concern from a security point of view because you have to
trust the device manufacturer / Google with the security aspects of such
code, and there is no possibility of somebody else auditing the code
because the source code is not available.
Android devices typically require a forked version of the Linux kernel.
I believe they are slowly moving to reduce the changes required by
merging them mainline, but not sure how that is progressing right now.
Otherwise, I imagine this might have security concerns too.
--
Brian May <brian@...uxpenguins.xyz>
https://linuxpenguins.xyz/brian/
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