There are more than one billion Android devices in use today, each one a potential target. Unfortunately, many fundamental Android security features have been little more than a black box to all but the most elite security professionals—until now.
In Android Security Internals , top Android security expert Nikolay Elenkov takes us under the hood of the Android security system. Elenkov describes Android security architecture from the bottom up, delving into the implementation of major security-related components and subsystems, like Binder IPC, permissions, cryptographic providers, and device administration.
You’ll –How Android permissions are declared, used, and enforced –How Android manages application packages and employs code signing to verify their authenticity –How Android implements the Java Cryptography Architecture (JCA) and Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE) frameworks –About Android’s credential storage system and APIs, which let applications store cryptographic keys securely –About the online account management framework and how Google accounts integrate with Android –About the implementation of verified boot, disk encryption, lockscreen, and other device security features –How Android’s bootloader and recovery OS are used to perform full system updates, and how to obtain root access
With its unprecedented level of depth and detail, Android Security Internals is a must-have for any security-minded Android developer.
As a member of the Android Platform Security team, this book has been one of my top 2 recommended to people new to Android, and top book overall for those interested in Android Security. Though I never finished it (read only about half of the content and skimmed the rest), this book provides the architectural background and details to greatly appreciate a variety of Android's components. Each chapter is a self-contained analysis of a particular component and all of them provide insightful information. Even though this book is now somewhat dated (based on Android 4.4), its writing quality and analysis will prove useful for years to come, and it is leagues beyond any of the other Android Security books I've encountered.