Maintaining Android in the enterprise

Risk Management

Conclusions

Android is insecure; the add-on software that many manufacturers offer does nothing to change this. Add-ons are not enough to instill confidence in an insecure OS. If you want to avoid big expenditures, you need to take steps yourself to provide a clean, working device to your employees if worst comes to worst.

With the right analysis tools, you can perhaps also find out which door was left open and then use apps such as the AFWall+ firewall to introduce appropriate measures and close the door in the future. There is no alternative to hoping your employees act sensibly and building up mutual trust.

Security experts, such as those at the it-sa IT Security Expo, agree: Android and Apple devices in the enterprise are like PCs in Internet cafes: They are insecure and constantly exposed to threats that cannot be controlled. The only remedy is a regular reinstall.

Infos

SUSECon: http://www.susecon.com
"Architectural Failures" by Markus Feilner. Linux-Magazin , October 2012, p. 28 [in German]
Android SDK: https://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
XDA Developers: http://www.xda-developers.com
AndroidPIT: http://www.androidpit.com
Superuser: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noshufou.android.su&hl=en
Network Log: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.googlecode.networklog&hl=en
AFWall+: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.ukanth.ufirewall
Titanium Backup: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup
"Admin's Little Helpers" by Holger Gantikow and Markus Feilner: Linux Magazine , issue 158, pg. 30: http://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2014/158/Admin-s-Little-Helpers
CyanogenMod: http://www.cyanogenmod.org
Sleuth Kit: http://www.sleuthkit.org/
viaForensics: https://viaforensics.com/android-forensics/google-nexus-yaffs2-images.html
Yaffs: http://www.yaffs.net
Wear leveling: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive
"Volatility 2.3" by Markus Feilner and Hans-Peter Merkel: Linux Magazine , issue 157, pg. 42: http://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2013/157/Volatility-2.3
Sample memory images: http://code.google.com/p/volatility/wiki/SampleMemoryImages
Creating your own memory dumps: http://code.google.com/p/volatility/wiki/AndroidMemoryForensics
Google NDK: http://developer.android.com/tools/sdk/ndk/index.html

The Author

Hans-Peter Merkel has focused on data forensics for many years in the open source community. He trains employees of law enforcement agencies in Europe, Asia, and Africa and is a founder member and chairman of FreiOSS and Linux4Afrika!