The privacy implications of this are not cool. I’m not OK with every app knowing which apps I have installed. Or any app knowing that, frankly.
Same for DBS bank, also in Singapore. Their app, which is mandatory to generate login & transaction approval OTPs, doesn’t even work on a stock OnePlus phone since it detects part of the OS as “modified”.
Since I have to use that bank for my company, I had to buy a separate phone that’s now sitting in my drawer 24/7 for that purpose alone.
WTF, I remember the UOB banking app not liking my phone being rooted and what not, but Magisk would work sometimes. But a stock phone not working is especially fucked up. Did you find out what was triggering the response?
I’ve escalated this all the way to their app developers and in the end they told me something about permissions to draw over other apps being enabled in the default launcher, which they consider to be “malicious”. So my options were to install a third party launcher and forcefully uninstall the default OnePlus launcher (via adb, since any other method would require root), or use a different phone altogether.
Now I’m using Nova Launcher anyway, but it had glitches every here and there where it would default back to the standard launcher, so uninstalling that was a risk I didn’t want to take.
Yeah, it’s the same for iOS when you sideload any app. You can always get an SMS OTP to login though
For sideloaded apps I can understand the rationale at least, but a stock phone really shouldn’t have any issues with a genuinely downloaded app from google play.
Could you sandbox the banking app in the work profile with something like Shelter?
It’s unfortunate for those that can’t switch banks, but this would be a strong reason for making me want to switch. I’d rather skip the one mobile banking app than uninstall every other app lol
Amid the complaints, industry regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released a statement voicing its support for the bank’s security feature, which it said aims to address risks associated with downloading applications from unauthorized sources, since these may contain malware.
Maybe I just haven’t encountered it, but are there malware apps? Just trying to get legitimate apps to work sometimes means having to enable debugging, approve permissions and jump through a whole bunch of warnings. Even then apps will get flagged by Play services (ex. Those game currency spoofer apps)
OCBC was the center of a spate of SMS phishing scams last year, which wiped out SG$13.7 million ($10.17 million) from the accounts of 790 customers. Scammers had manipulated SMS Sender ID details to push out messages that appeared to be from OCBC, urging the victims to resolve issues with their bank accounts. They then were redirected to phishing websites and instructed to key in their bank login details, including username, PIN, and One-Time Password (OTP).
That’s not from bad apps… If anything this new policy will make me use the mobile website instead of the app.
That’s not from bad apps… If anything this new policy will make me use the mobile website instead of the app.
I’d also consider switching banks if it isn’t too much of a hassle. They clearly can’t invest well in terms of security for their users.
Can’t use the mobile website, because the OTP is generated via the app. So you’ll still need the app. Standalone OTP tokens are being phased out; my bank’s doing so from October this year.
Why tf does android let apps see this sort of info? This absolutely should be sandboxed
Hide My Applist (root) should make it work.
And here I thought DBS Digibank’s anti-tamper protection was too strict. To be honest, I don’t know why these banks spend so much effort protecting the app from hacking, when most fraud comes from someone divulging account information to a scammer
Years ago a team I worked on came up with some ideas for how to use this ability in a music streaming service.
Just installed Tinder? Have a breakup playlist.
Just installed Airbnb? Have some travel playlists.
We didn’t do it because it was such an invasion of privacy.
Sound like you need to change your bank.
How are they managing to do this? Surely it requires a permission in Android to access the list of installed apps, right?
It’s a default permission which can’t be revoked.
Wow that seems like a strange permission to have as default. It doesn’t seem like very many apps have a legitimate need for listing other installed apps unless I’m missing something.
Google puts limits on which apps can see what’s installed on an Android device Only antivirus programs, file managers and similar will be able to see other apps on a user’s device.
https://www.engadget.com/google-restriction-apps-that-can-see-other-apps-111037925.html
Plugins and addons for other apps is probably the original motivator for this. Also handy to check if an app is present to listen to the intent signal you’re about to send out.
Of course, then the malware/spyware writers got ahold of it and here we are. Something with good intentions and assholes come along and ruin it for everyone. Kinda like pop up windows and cookies.
It might be checking for specific root-related files on your device.
Well it’s not an ODBC bank!
It’s a good joke, don’t let anybody else get you down.
But you are allowed to download malware from the AppStore, feel free to do it that way instead.
