The Android Platform Security Model (2023)
Abstract
Android is the most widely deployed end-user focused operating system. With its growing set of use cases
encompassing communication, navigation, media consumption, entertainment, finance, health, and access to
sensors, actuators, cameras, or microphones, its underlying security model needs to address a host of practical
threats in a wide variety of scenarios while being useful to non-security experts. To support this flexibility,
Android’s security model must strike a difficult balance between security, privacy, and usability for end users;
provide assurances for app developers; and maintain system performance under tight hardware constraints.
This paper aims to both document the assumed threat model and discuss its implications, with a focus on
the ecosystem context in which Android exists. We analyze how different security measures in past and
current Android implementations work together to mitigate these threats, and, where there are special cases
in applying the security model in practice; we discuss these deliberate deviations and examine their impact.
encompassing communication, navigation, media consumption, entertainment, finance, health, and access to
sensors, actuators, cameras, or microphones, its underlying security model needs to address a host of practical
threats in a wide variety of scenarios while being useful to non-security experts. To support this flexibility,
Android’s security model must strike a difficult balance between security, privacy, and usability for end users;
provide assurances for app developers; and maintain system performance under tight hardware constraints.
This paper aims to both document the assumed threat model and discuss its implications, with a focus on
the ecosystem context in which Android exists. We analyze how different security measures in past and
current Android implementations work together to mitigate these threats, and, where there are special cases
in applying the security model in practice; we discuss these deliberate deviations and examine their impact.
Research Areas
