this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/fxgi06/not_new_news_but_tbh_if_you_have_tiktiok_just_get/
"There's also a few snippets of code on the Android version that allows for the downloading of a remote zip file, unzipping it, and executing said binary."
Obviously, the app creator can write whatever code they want into the app. If they want to update it, including to run an AB test, they can do a new version.
The only reason for unzipping and executing random binaries on-demand, outside of the normal app update process, is if you want to specifically target one individual or a group of individuals and enable functionality specifically for them that is custom to those particular people. Maybe you just have specific needs for them that aren't served by the overall process, or maybe what you want to install is secret enough that you don't want security researchers getting their hands on it. That second one would be consistent with the obfuscation around even the stock behavior of the app.
I am obviously not talking about HTTPS when I say "encryption to thwart any attempt to analyze it."
Show me where in the Chrome or Firefox app there is code to download an executable -- not a versioned update to the app through the Play Store, but a random chunk of code -- and run it.
This is a pretty impressive amount of deflection.
"All apps on iOS are obfuscated, so it's not important that TikTok on Android takes extra trouble to obfuscate itself in a very weird way which other Android apps generally don't do."
"All Windows apps work by downloading new binaries for themselves, because there's no package management, so it's not important that TikTok on Android takes extra trouble to bypass the package management and enable downloading custom per-user executables and running them."
"Some apps have vulnerabilities by accident, so it's not important that TikTok has a remote code execution vulnerability built in on purpose."
"Apps have a security model, which by the way can be jailbroken, so it's not important if something malicious happens within the app. Actually, forget what I said about jailbreaking."
You haven't actually addressed anything I said, just threw a whole bunch of words about related topics to make it sound like what I described about this particular topic is, within the scope of this topic, a normal thing. It's not.
I think we're done here. I could repeat myself but it would be a waste of both our time.
This is a pretty fair point. I think I saw one other analysis that was similar to the reddit guy, but most people who do security analysis of TikTok seem to say that it's not especially nefarious, or any more so than the other ones (which are all pretty nefarious). I don't know why I trust this guy and not those guys. I just found it credible and specific on the positive side, where the other side is proving the negative. But yeah, there might be a bit of confirmation bias there.
I just ignored that part lol
It's all good, I appreciate it.