In a move that could help it avoid an iPhone 3G-like software drama, Google wants bug hunters to test its Android mobile platform. On Monday, the Android Security Team posted a message to introduce itself to the security research and vulnerability communities.
Android is Google’s Linux-based mobile development platform, which also contains a collection of standard applications that can be installed on a mobile device.
“As you may expect, building and maintaining a secure mobile platform is a
difficult task,” the team wrote. “While we have found and fixed many of our own bugs as well as flaws in other open-source projects, we realize that the discovery of additional security issues in a system this large and complex is inevitable.”
An Open Invitation
The team invited the security community to collaborate on what amounts to a debugging effort. Bug hunters can report a bug in Android or one of its components by e-mailing security at android.com. Google promised to respond to bug report with requests for more information, if needed, and to keep bug reporters informed of progress in closing the issue.
“We do appreciate and encourage responsible disclosure, especially since Android will be deployed on many different devices that will require a large amount of coordination to patch,” the team wrote. “Help from security researchers in the form of usable bug reports and responsible time lines will greatly assist us in securing the ecosystem of Android devices as quickly as possible. Our vulnerability bulletins will credit responsible reporters of any flaws.”
Google said it will release more details of the security features in the Android
platform over the next several months, as well as developer documentation and
guidance on how to use these features in Android applications.
Old-Fashioned Beta Testing
Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Jupitermedia, said there’s nothing particularly innovative about what Google is…