Android Oreo Security Enhancements as Revealed by Google

Coffee with India
2 min readApr 9, 2018

Google has already revealed the major security enhancements it has introduced with Android Oreo. This newest Android version is already active on many devices including the ones like Google Pixel, and Nexus. However, if we go by the stats of November 2017, it is running only on 0.5% of all the current Android devices.

Though the earlier versions like Marshmallow enhanced the hardware security, Android Oreo is so far the finest version. Here is an overview how the security is reached its utmost with the coming of Android 8.0.

About Android 8

Android Oreo or Android 8.0 is the latest version of the most popular operating system. It was introduced officially in August 2017 with a promise of double the speed and efficiency. It is available on almost all the world famous mobile devices. However, here we are discussing the security enhancements of the Android’s latest version.

Key Android Oreo Security Enhancements

Google has offered a new reference to the verified boot. This feature is specifically designed to prevent all the devices from the unnecessary booting caused by the interfered software. This implementation is named Android Verified Boot 2.0.

Android Verified Boot 2.0

This feature runs to enable the updates on security in formats of footer and rollback. It runs with Project Trebel. Project Trebel is part of Android 8.0 Oreo version. It is one of the biggest security change as it has made updates speedier and simpler for the OEMs. However, this works from within and hence users won’t be able to notice it.

The rollback protection allows users to prevent booting if shifted to an older version of the Android.

OEM Lock

Besides the new verified boot version, the latest Android version also introduces the new OEM Lock feature. This OEM Lock HAL or Hardware Abstractions Layer is mainly directed to allow manufacturers of the handsets to choose and implement how the device will be locked or unlocked. It also involves manufacturing tamper-resistant system to prevent software attacks, hardware attacks, and attacks involving physical penetration.

The Android Oreo also allow an enhanced isolation by splitting the processes. The web view is run in an isolated sandbox to prevent the external resources from tampering the device. This makes it harder for the hard disk attackers to carry out their malicious intentions.

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