I think that locking out developers from using APIs (and yes, I know that it wasn't part of the SDK) for security purposes is an entirely wrong approach. Sure, malicious things can be done with reading the logs, but in the same vein, a kitchen knife can be used to kill someone. Every API can be used for malicious purposes - I would guess that the camera can be used to silently take pictures without the user's knowledge, but that doesn't mean that developers should be locked out of the Camera API. Malcicous apps should be filtered at the source, when being uploaded the Google Play, through automatic checks. I know that this is already being done, but rather than closing off APIs, these checks should be intensified, if malicious apps are still getting through.
There are lots of legitimate reasons for reading the system logs at runtime. I could live with a solution as described by Dianne (granting access on a per-app basis through the system settings UI), but this should have been implemented at the same time as the lockdown of the "old" permission. Just because some developers forget to remove logs containing sensitive information, everyone else shouldn't be punished for their mistake. Nick Am Donnerstag, 12. Juli 2012 22:07:23 UTC+2 schrieb Kristopher Micinski: > > On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 4:01 PM, John Coryat <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Let me just respectfully say that I don't understand the decision. > >> The API is potentially very dangerous, yes, but that is why it requires > >> a permission. > >> > > > > Do users even look or comprehend what permissions are being used in any > > given app? The user wants the app, they agree, agree, agree and then get > > malware. > > > > This is a problem with permissions, not specifically the read logs > permission. > > The problem with the read logs permission is that it doesn't clearly > map into something the user can think about. > > The user can see "reads logs" and may think, "oh, reading things the > device does, like, battery, etc...?" > > But doesn't get that it basically can let you monitor when apps start, > plus whatever stupid developers do to like leaking high security data > to a public channel ... > > Not having an API for it probably does help, as it makes it to where > some people who would use the information when they shouldn't be just > dont' use it because of the bar to entry (parsing the logs manually), > but does (clearly) make it a tad problematic for people who want to do > legitimate things with it... > > kris > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
