this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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Android
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Am I missing something? In my experience using Obtainium it pulls apks from sources I tell it to, usually the developers git releases and even sometimes f-droid repos. This app doesn't compile anything.
The main benefit is watching for updates directly from developers which, again in my experience, has been quicker than waiting on f-droid. You could even have it do just the notification and you can manually go download and install if you're the cautious.
The developer(s) could slip something nefarious in easily. We're putting all our faith into developers that could be anybody
The developer of obtainium or the packages we're installing? I'll assume the former. If you're skeptical about obtainium you could still use it as a source to monitor && notify and then do your install manually.
No, the developers of the apps you are installing through obtainium.
How does f-droid solve this problem? From my understanding they confirm that the
.apkprovided by the dev matches what compiles from source and run it through Virus Total. Those are trivial steps for a malicious dev to take to slip in something nefarious.At that point you're relying on the community to check every commit for nefarious code $x. Not to mention they could simply build up community trust for some time before slipping in the code, since they'd effectively be burned once (if?) their very first shady code commit is found.
I can't imagine f-droid would go on the hook and say everything they build is also code reviewed for malicious stuff, right?
They don't just confirm it, the apk you download from fdroid is compiled by them from the source code. And sure, they're not reviewing all the source code for all apps they build, but it's still one added layer of security.
The apk isn't always what f-droid compiles. There's two scenarios where they publish the apk signed by the developer.
https://f-droid.org/docs/Reproducible_Builds/
It's one added layer of security to you, but to others it's a man in the middle that could be an extra attack vector.
If you don't trust the dev to put out an apk that's compiled from their public source why are you trusting any of your data with them?