Nearly All Google Pixel Phones Exposed by Unpatched Flaw in Hidden Android App

Google’s flagship Pixel smartphone line touts security as a centerpiece feature, offering guaranteed software updates for seven years and running stock Android that’s meant to be free of third-party add-ons and bloatware. On Thursday, though, researchers from the mobile device security firm iVerify are publishing findings on an Android vulnerability that seems to have been present in every Android release for Pixel since September 2017 and could expose the devices to manipulation and takeover.

The issue relates to a software package called “Showcase.apk” that runs at the system level and lurks invisible to users. The application was developed by the enterprise software company Smith Micro for Verizon as a mechanism for putting phones into a retail store demo mode—it is not Google software. Yet for years, it has been in each Android release for Pixel and has deep system privileges, including remote code execution and remote software installation. Even riskier, the application is designed to download a configuration file over an unencrypted HTTP web connection that iVerify researchers say could be hijacked by an attacker to take control of the application and then the entire victim device.

iVerify disclosed its findings to Google at the beginning of May, and the tech giant has not yet released a fix for the issue. Google spokesperson Ed Fernandez tells WIRED in a statement that Showcase “is no longer being used” by Verizon, and Android will remove Showcase from all supported Pixel devices with a software update “in the coming weeks.” He added that Google has not seen evidence of active exploitation and that the app is not present in the new Pixel 9 series devices that Google announced this week.

In response to WIRED’s inquiry about Showcase’s vulnerability, Verizon spokesperson George Koroneos says, “The APK in question was used for retail demos and is no longer in use.” Smith Micro did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment ahead of publication.

“I’ve seen a lot of Android vulnerabilities, and this one is unique in a few ways and quite troubling,” says Rocky Cole, chief operating officer of iVerify and a former US National Security Agency analyst. “When Showcase.apk runs, it has the ability to take over the phone. But the code is, frankly, shoddy. It raises questions about why third-party software that runs with such high privileges so deep in the operating system was not tested more deeply. It seems to me that Google has been pushing bloatware to Pixel devices around the world.”

iVerify researchers discovered the application after the company’s threat-detection scanner flagged an unusual Google Play Store app validation on a user’s device. The customer, big data analytics company Palantir, worked with iVerify to investigate Showcase.apk and disclose the findings to Google. Palantir chief information security officer Dane Stuckey says that the discovery and what he describes as Google’s slow, opaque response has prompted Palantir to phase out not just Pixel phones, but all Android devices across the company.

“Google embedding third-party software in Android’s firmware and not disclosing this to vendors or users creates significant security vulnerability to anyone who relies on this ecosystem,” Stuckey tells WIRED. He added that his interactions with Google throughout the standard 90-day disclosure window “severely eroded our trust in the ecosystem. To protect our customers, we have had to make the difficult decision to move away from Android in our enterprise.”

iVerify vice president of research Matthias Frielingsdorf points out that while Showcase represents a concerning exposure for Pixel devices, it is turned off by default. This means that an attacker would first need to turn the application on in a target’s device before being able to exploit it. The most straightforward way to do this would involve having physical access to a victim’s phone as well as their system password or another exploitable vulnerability that would allow them to make changes to settings. Google’s Fernandez emphasized this limiting factor as well.

“We only found a physical way of turning this on, but there might be different ways that a potential remote attacker or someone that is already on the phone with malware might turn this on and use it for privilege escalation,” Frielingsdorf says. “For our knowledge, physical access limits the danger. If I knew a clear remote way to do this, I would not want to do public disclosure because then millions of people’s devices would be in danger.” He adds that iVerify is limiting the technical details it releases about the issue until Google pushes its fix.

The iVerify researchers say that, in addition to Pixel phones, it is possible that Showcase is embedded in other Android devices as well. Google’s Fernandez tells WIRED in the statement that “we are also notifying other Android OEMs,” meaning other original equipment manufacturers who make Android phones.

“We would have much preferred to have Google patch this before we talked about it publicly, but their inability to give a specific patch date left us no other choice,” iVerify’s Cole says. “A well-resourced adversary like a nation state could exploit this—it has the potential to be a backdoor into basically any Pixel in the world.”

Updated 1 pm ET, 8/15/2024: Added a statement from Verizon.