• dhork@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    “Temu is designed to make this expansive access undetected, even by sophisticated users,” Griffin’s complaint said. “Once installed, Temu can recompile itself and change properties, including overriding the data privacy settings users believe they have in place.”

    That’s just nuts

    • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      Yeah, it is. It’s such an extraordinary claim.

      One requiring extraordinary evidence that wasn’t provided.

      “It’s doing amazing hacks to access everything and it’s so good at it it’s undetectable!” Right, how convenient.

      • GenitalHurricane@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Libmanwe-lib.so is a library file in machine language (compiled). A Google search reveals that it is exclusively mentioned in the context of PDD software—all five search results refer to PDD’s apps. According to this discussion on GitHub, “the malicious code of PDD is protected by two sets of VMPs (manwe, nvwa)”. Libmanwe is the library to use manwe.

        An anonymous user uploaded a decompiled version of libmanwe-lib to GitHub. It reads like it is a list of methods to encrypt, decrypt or shift integer signals, which fits the above description as a VMP for the sake of hiding a program’s purpose.

        In plain words, TEMU’s app employed a PDD proprietary measure to hide malicious code in an opaque bubble within the application’s executables

        • sndrtj@feddit.nl
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          4 months ago

          So wait, bit-shifting some integers is now considered being malicious? Is that really the defense here? Using that definition just about all software in existence is malicious.

    • paraphrand@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      This is why companies like Apple are at least a tiny bit correct when they go on about app security and limiting code execution. The fact it aligns with their creed of controlling all of the technology they sell makes the whole debate a mess, though. And it does not excuse shitty behavior on their part.

      But damn

      And if they got this past Apple in their platforms. That’s even wilder.

      • GenitalHurricane@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago
        1. Dynamic compilation using runtime.exec(). A cryptically named function in the source code calls for “package compile”, using runtime.exec(). This means a new program is created by the app itself.—Compiling is the process of creating a computer executable from a human-readable code. The executable created by this function is not visible to security scans before or during installation of the app, or even with elaborate penetration testing. Therefore, TEMU’s app could have passed all the tests for approval into Google’s Play Store, despite having an open door built in for an unbounded use of exploitative methods. The local compilation even allows the software to make use of other data on the device that itself could have been created dynamically and with information from TEMU’s servers.
        • GenitalHurricane@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Ah yes, delete your original incorrect comment instead of continuing the discussion about how wrong and lazy it was to make, nice.