“The study, undertaken by Coverity, revealed 359 flaws, with 25 per cent of of them being ranked as ‘high risk.’This ranking meant they were likely to cause a security breach or crash a device running the operating system,” Scott reports. “Andy Chou, chief scientist and co-founder of Coverity, said… ‘a significant number of these defects are the high risk types that our customers typically fix before shipping their products to market.’”
Scott reports, “Chou said the aim of the report was to give the makers of the software a chance to fix things before they became a problem but the Android study was of Froyo, which is already shipping in a number of mobile devices.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Have fun with your mobile banking, iPhone have-nots!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan B.” for the heads up.]
This headline is really misleading. One of the main points made was that Android has an extremely LOW number of flaws for a OS with this amount of code.
MDN is definitely not a “no spin zone”
Mac OS (and iOS) has its own major flaws, and Apple is typically slow to fix them. The only thing protecting iOS users is Apple’s control over what they allow apps to do via their app review for the app store
Who needs Microsoft when Google can fsck things up just as well, if not better than Microsoft can.
It has taken, what, over 6 or 7 years to bring iOS to where it is now (counting initial development/research time)? And these guys think their first or second serious iteration is going to compete with a mature, tested operating system?
Just wait until the hackers REALLY get ahold of a widely-disseminated Android tablet. People will be pulling their hair and eyebrows out of their skulls with grief and anger!
Haste makes waste, Eric. But, then again, you deserve everything that is about to befall you.
@ critic,
359 is an extremely low number of flaws for a cell phone?
You work for Microsoft or Google, don’t you.
@critic
Go back to FOX news.
@critic
“The only thing protecting iOS users is Apple’s control over what they allow apps to do via their app review for the app store”
Yes. That was Apple’s intent. Seems like that choice is a sound one. And it’s not like Apple thought hey we have a crappy kernel lets throw in a walled garden just to be on the safe side. It’s not like they did this and thought, wow we just dodged a bullet. Aren’t we proud of ourselves. This is planning, preparation and pragmatism. I applaud it.
No its not “really misleading”. Android was never developed with any attention to security because Googles business model is to monetize users personal information. Security is way down on the list as is UI and pretty much everything else.
Apple’s “major flaws” do not result in real world problems where Androids do.
@Randian
“It has taken, what, over 6 or 7 years to bring iOS to where it is now”
Actually, iOS is just the core OSX with essentially a different UI. And OSX is essentially NeXTSTEP OS which got it start when “a team led by Avie Tevanian, who had joined” NeXT “after working as one of the Mach kernel engineers at Carnegie Mellon University, was to develop the NeXTSTEP operating system.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT
So it’s been around a damn long time longer then 7 years. Just sayin.
@critic
The relevant missing section:
Andy Chou, chief scientist and co-founder of Coverity, said: “The… results for the Android kernel we tested show a better than average defect density, meaning this specific kernel is shipping with fewer defects than the industry average for software of this size.”
This is the part I like:
“…of this size.”
So the metric is defects per kilobyte? What difference does that make. There are 359 flaws 25% of which are high risk.
So 90 high risk flaws which the article points out are the type usually addressed before shipping a product.
Now who is spinning?
@iCaptainObvious
VERY well put……..nuff said!
@critic
Your critique is really misleading. While the original article does note the Android kernal shows a better than average defect density, the comparison seems to be to other open source products such as Linux, Apache, and PHP. Other than Linux which is used by what 0.00001% of computer users, the other products are intermediary products that are incorporated into other operating system environments. The Froyo version of Android is an end user product that is used by millions of smartphone users.
Like MDN says, if you are doing your mobile banking on an Android phone, I hope you keep your balance real low.
Shmidt has his own high risk flaws. Seems like the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.
They need to accidentally post the defects so hackers can play with them
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And ten make an app to let us iPhone users mess with the android fanboi’s.
Walk by an annoying android fanboi… Launch app, press the “wipe nearest android phone” button, and watch them cry
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@critic,
NEVER dis Apple (or support its rivals) on these pages. This is a zealot site, not one of reason or truth!
The very fact that iOS can be jailbroken repeatly even before release and by using Safari at a website even doesn’t speak highly of Apple’s programming or security attention skills.
Android has flaws, but it’s because it’s code is open to inspection that these flaws were found.
@ TheAdvocator
I for one welcome a discussion but throwing opinions around like they’re facts is best left to the political process.
If you have a valid point whose intention is to illuminate both the positive and negative aspects of something then let’s talk. Otherwise live by zealotry, die by zealotry.
I love Apple products but MDN you really make Apple fans look idiotic, self-centered, and uneducated people.
The MDN Take sucks, and there’s no doubt that you make us look like fools.
Not only that but let them according to you MDN “wannabe iPhone” choose there fate. You get what you pay for.
I love my iPhone 4 but really Android has some great phones currently available that are on par if not better than the iPhone.
@ KillJoy Deluxe
Uh you may want to take a look at this:
http://developer.apple.com/opensource/
Ya know, to have an informed discussion about the issue. Mud-slinging is optional.
@ Aaron Pierre
“I love Apple products but MDN you really make Apple fans look idiotic, self-centered, and uneducated people.”
Can you be specific in your criticism?
@killjoy deluxe
So what you’re saying is that the flaws in code were only found because it’s open? Insinuating that the flaws couldn’t be found (hacked) were it not for Android open-ended generosity? I’ll take greater security over greater flexibility any day. Like others have posted, why don’t you try your hand at Android banking? If the bottom line is less worry and plenty enough flexibility for the time being (or else we wouldn’t buy an iPhone), then where exactly is the advantage that Android has? By the way, why do Apple nay-sayers bother coming into Apple-related forums? I spend NO time in android forums because it seems that a forum for a lesser product wouldn’t be worth the time. I hope it’s not to win over the minds of us iOS users.
This isn’t news for all these Windose idiots that buy Android.
They are used to this type of thing and love it.
Now there are many Android users who are rueing for an Android marketplace wallgarden. Amazon is rumored to set up an Android app store hoping to bring order to the anarchy that was perpetuated by the irresponsible Google polygamist who only knows how to beget children but does not want to be responsible for their upbringing. Apple was right all along.
“The central kernel of the Android mobile operating system has hundreds of defects…”
Perhaps this is why Paul Allen sued Google. Those Android defects are patented. No one makes defects like Microsoft.
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I like the banking bait.
It landed.
Enjoy your rotten Android OS LOSERS!