It just so happened that for more than ten years of history Android the status of the most unsafe mobile OS on the market was entrenched. This opinion is shared by many users, but this is a fundamentally wrong position. After all Android is, in fact, a platform that manufacturers are free to change and configure as they want. As a result, it becomes so difficult to recognize the original operating system in a particular shell that you involuntarily begin to forget about it. Therefore, it is rather strange to slide into generalization, especially since many shells differ from each other not only in design, but also in the approach of the creators to their development. True, this is not always safe.
Samsung changes too much Android and Google doesn't like it
Samsung's desire to improve the security of Galaxy smartphones by changing the kernel code has led to the appearance of a large number of bugs and vulnerabilities in One UI. This statement was made by experts of the Google Project Zero project, who are engaged in research in the field of information security. According to Yann Horne, an operating system security specialist, Samsung's actions only worsen the security indicators Android, which puts users at unreasonable risk.
Is Android safe
Third-party shells are generally more functional but less secure.
From a security point of view, Linux, on which Android is based, is perfect enough to operate without changes, experts say Google Project Zero. Therefore, while Google is essentially giving manufacturers complete carte blanche, giving them the ability to change the original operating system as they see fit, it still recommends that they do not rework existing defense mechanisms. Otherwise, manufacturers not only undermine the security of the platform, but also instill in users an unsubstantiated confidence in their absolute security.
According to Google Project Zero, security issues are common in many Samsung smartphones. The latter included the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy A50, whose firmware revealed critical vulnerabilities that allowed executing arbitrary code on devices and escalating privileges. Simply put, malicious applications that got on these devices could independently obtain permissions without the knowledge of the users and allowed their creators to remotely perform any manipulations with infected devices.
Are third party shells safe for Android
However, the researchers emphasize, this problem is typical not only for Samsung smartphones, but also for many others. The fact is that changing the operating system code, even if it is done in order to ensure the safety of users, can lead to a conflict in the operation of certain elements, because of which, as a rule, standard protective mechanisms suffer, losing their effectiveness. Even the hardware components that manufacturers supply their devices with often fail to save the situation, because if the chip that encrypts the data does not have a stable operating software, there will be little sense from it.
Does this mean that everyone needs to take and urgently change to stock Android? Well, of course not. Still, whatever one may say, a pure operating system is not yet sufficiently developed in terms of functionality and is very often inferior to third-party shells. Take, for example, the function of creating scrolling screenshots, which is not in the stock Android and which is available in almost all third-party shells. But this is just one example of tens and hundreds. Therefore, just carefully monitor what you download, check what privileges are available to installed applications and monitor energy and traffic consumption, because this way you can track the secret transfer of your data to remote servers.