Uninstallable by design : the role of pre-installed apps in Android’s security landscape

The competitive smartphone market is keen to prevent its intellectual property from being analysed by competitors and the public. As a result, most smartphones are locked when distributed, and anti-reversing techniques are widely used. Consequently, millions of users use smartphones daily without a clear understanding of the software’s functionality and purpose. We developed a novel framework, FirmwareDroid, to analyse the security of mobile device firmware. Nowadays, most smartphones come with a large number of pre-installed mobile apps. For instance, on Android, it is normal to find between 150 and 1,000 pre-installed apps for various purposes. Some of these apps are essential for the system to operate correctly, while others aim solely to enhance the user experience. Android allows the inclusion of third-party apps. Thus, many devices come shipped with apps that some users don’t want or need on their devices, such as social media and news apps. These apps are often referred to as “bloatware,” as they unnecessarily bloat the device’s operating system and cannot be simply uninstalled by users. The main reason why bloatware on Android cannot be uninstalled is a security feature that prevents attackers from modifying system apps on the device.