As you may be aware, Google is working on Jetpack Compose, a next-generation UI toolkit for Android apps, effectively replacing the existing View-based system that we have been using since the beginning. Barring unexpected technical problems, I expect Compose to be Google's Android UI focus for the next decade.
Since it is being developed in the open, and since it is still early in developer previews, we have a wonderful opportunity to try to ensure that this toolkit handles security-related scenarios well. If you find security-related concerns in Compose, file issues! If you know of security-related concerns in the existing View system, and you want me to try to determine if Compose suffers from similar problems, reach out! ---- As an example, we use FLAG_SECURE to have a window block screenshots and screencasts. However, Android lacks any concept of window inheritance or ownership, so you have to put FLAG_SECURE on each window that needs to be secured. Unfortunately, Google created lots of windows without giving us any opportunity to add that flag, so we cannot readily secure our menus, Spinner and similar drop-downs, toasts, and so on. See https://github.com/commonsguy/cwac-security/blob/master/docs/FLAGSECURE.md for more on that. As it turns out, Compose also creates windows, and it presently does not give us the ability to add FLAG_SECURE to them. So, I filed issues for that: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/143778148 https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/143778149 Next weekend, I plan to look at text entry in Compose and confirm that we have a way of avoiding String objects, so passphrases can be zero'd out and we don't have plaintext passphrases floating around our heap unnecessarily. That's the sort of thing that we need to try to identify. In theory, since Compose is shipped as libraries, this sort of thing can be improved later (unlike framework classes that are baked into the firmware). In practice, large code bases tend to ossify, and so the longer problems linger, the less likely it is that we will be able to get them fixed. Thanks in advance for any suggestions or support! -- Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy) https://commonsware.com | https://github.com/commonsguy https://commonsware.com/blog | https://twitter.com/commonsguy _______________________________________________ List info: https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/guardian-dev To unsubscribe, email: guardian-dev-unsubscr...@lists.mayfirst.org
