Isn't Motorola the new msnufacturer for those GraphineOS phones? And now they do THIS???
Kinda makes them feel less trustworthy to install a security based rom on.
Ive been with Pixel for a while and was looking forward to my next phone being a Motorola but this is NOT a good look at all
From reading the article, the conclusion right now is that this isn't a conscious act by Motorola.
My guess is they used an open source library in their Smart Feed app that has been poisoned with an affiliate link injection. Either that or someone working at Motorola slipped the code in and their quality control process missed it.
Neither one of those is a good look for Motorola. But it probably isn't as bad as the headline makes it sounds.
On a side note, I ditched the increasingly shoddy Pixel a series for a mid-level Motorola phone a couple of years ago and haven't looked back.
Ive got a Pixel 8 Pro with GOS and I love it
Seconded, though the sooner I'm able to get GrapheneOS on another phone, the better, as Google's quality plunge after the Pixel 5 series was just inexcusable.
I've had nothing but good experiences with my pixel 9, what stands out to you?
I have a Pixel 7 from a couple years ago. Its simply an inferior product compared to other mobiles on the market. The higher price could be a more regional issue perhaps but mine still has problems with fingerprint scanner, sim issues, heating problems etc.
The only reason I bought it was for the unlocked boot loader and grapheneos.
Haven't had any malfunctions on the pixel 9 at all, but I immediately installed grapheneOS and put it in a case. Maybe because I didn't grab it at launch I dodged a bullet? Odd.
Maybe they fixed some of that in later iterations. Heating and 5g bands are more region dependent so that could be just me since I live near the equator.
Thirded! Switched a few weeks back. Feels good to be able to fight in whatever little way that I can. Though one of my bank apps stopped working so that's kind of a pain in the ass.
How awful was moving your data? I've been wanting to switch, but my big hesitation is all my 2fa apps cuz I really don't want to have to reach out to all my clients to redo those...
I just moved from a Fold 4 (hinge broke or something, when I opened it the screens would go blank and only recover on a hard reboot) so I got a Pixel 10 Pro, flashed graphene and spent most of yesterday reinstalling apps more intentionally.
Authy refused to run, which is fine as I've been too lazy to swap from it even though I've been pissed since they got rid of the desktop app. Anyway I went through the 9 sites I had setup there and swapped it over to my vaultwarden.
Other apps that didn't install were EBay and Coinbase, both I can live with using the mobile browser instead (don't use them all that frequently anyway).
Thanks for the heads up on authy, I'll keep that in mind for when I swap!
It's app level injection, so presumably if you install GrapheneOS or use a different "smart feed app" (some kind of launcher for Motorola? I haven't used one before), it won't affect the user. Although, I agree it's a pretty bad look on the QA of preloaded apps.
Motorola is Lenovo, they are chinese. Of course they would try shenanigans like these to see if it sticks. Like I saw in my G23 with the Live Screen Locks shit, even we disabled it it would still change the screen lock wallpaper to a live one, had to remove the package from the user with adb.
the fact that they are chinese isn't relevant here, since such fraudulent practices have been seen on Brave Browser too, for example.
Wao, what a narrow-minded way to look at it. Lenovo is Chinese, yeah, and only the largest laptop manufacturer in the world. The one manufacturer that has been historically Linux friendly. Are their CPUs Chinese developed? No, they are US made (Intel and AMD), which is arguably as bad, maybe even worse.
Lenovo used to bundle Israeli-made spyware with Windows for some of their laptops. Not exactly a trustworthy company tbh. Not necessarily politically aligned with the CCP on every decision but they're not above spying on their customers clearly.
Shitty behavior on the part of Moto.
On the other hand, installing GOS gets rid of this issue. I'll likely still buy a Moto if I have the option of installing GOS myself. I wouldn't trust Moto to not add something to a pre-installed GOS.
Somehow feels like manipulating media now that android lockdown draws near and graphene os + motorola is one of the few fighting it
Tldr? How?
...
An app update on Motorola phones has started hijacking the Amazon app for the sake of injecting an affiliate code. To do that, tapping the app icon opens the user’s browser and immediately redirects to the Amazon app. It’s a “blink and you missed it” moment. This only happens when the user opens the Amazon app from the app drawer – not the homescreen pages.
...
We verified on a Razr (2026) running an older Smart Feed v2.03.0056 that this does not happen. Our Razr Fold, with app version 2.03.0070, has started showing this behavior, so it’s the latest update that’s to blame for hijacking the user’s intent. We couldn’t replicate this on a Moto G Stylus (2026) running the same app version, though. Sideloading the app, for reasons unclear, doesn’t seem to trigger this behavior, as manually installing the updated version on the aforementioned Razr (2026) didn’t show the same behavior.
In further digging, we noticed that the URL the phone opens up is “kira-abboud.com,” a website that references fashion influencer “@kirasfashionfinds.” Notably, this exact URL isn’t listed anywhere on Abboud’s social media, and the affiliate codes don’t match up either. The redirect coming from Motorola phones is using Amazona affiliate code “sramz-kff-008-20” which is completely different from any of the codes we saw from links shared by Abboud’s accounts and linked websites.
That sounds more like a phone got hit with malware than it necessarily being Motorola doing it. The same version of the app on multiple systems or side loading the suspicious version didn't trigger the behavior, so I'm doubtful the app itself is to blame.
Yeah but the app developer is Motorola. So unless they have had a breach (they'd like to tell us about) the call is coming from inside the house.
If "the call is coming from inside the house", why is it so specific/not very reproducible across the same app version and different methods of installing/accessing the app?
This is exactly why I said the bit about 'unless there's a breach'.
There's another comment on one of these threads that goes in depth about who the affiliate link supposedly belongs to, even though it doesn't match any of their known affiliate links, and it would appear that the affiliate link doesn't actually belong to Motorola (that anyone has been able to prove so far).
All that being said, Motorola is the developer of the app so if they pushed an update that causes this, then they are on the hook. Whether or not they are behind the affiliate link or there's some kind of MIM/malware or similar attack remains to be seen. Unfortunately we live in a time where app repos are being compromised left and right so with the limited information in the article this was my view of the situation.
Whether or not they are behind the affiliate link or there's some kind of MIM/malware or similar attack remains to be seen. Unfortunately we live in a time where app repos are being compromised left and right so with the limited information in the article this was my view of the situation.
I understand what you're saying, I'm saying the information we have doesn't fit the behavior you're equating this to.
Given they only had the issue when accessing it via the moto app drawer app on a limited number of phones and didn't see it when side loading or loading the app from another store, that is evidence against an app compromise and is closer to the behavior seen in local compromises. Were this an app level compromise as you're suggesting, the behavior wouldn't disappear on different devices or when side loaded.
I could easily be wrong, I just don't see the behavior I'd expect to see for a wide ranging own like a repo takeover.
Not sure what happened, possibly some mim, i dont think Motorola would risk reputational damage for a merely few $ through such low level highjack.
I dont think it any ill will here by Motorola.
Good thing I don't use Amazon.
Stock ROMs are removed immediately when obtaining a new phone
Did they just not see the backlash and class actions filed against PayPal/Honey, CapitalOne, etc. for this same affiliate code swapping scheme and just decided they'd do it anyway? Surely they had to have seen that, or did they think it was a good idea done blatantly and are trying to be sneakier about it?
Any chances to block that at DNS level with something like a pi hole or NextDNS ?
No
Sure, the domain is listed in the article. Most blocklists include affiliate and tracking passthrough domains already.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
