While new features and a new UI are always a welcome change with major OS revisions, security is probably one of the more important features. After all, there’s really no point in having a fancy looking OS with the security flaws and holes that any hacker could break into, right? Well if you’re planning on making the switch to Android or updating your Android device to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, you might be interested to learn that according to a report by Duo Security’s Jon Oberheide, Google has beefed up security in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, making it more secure when compared to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. This is thanks to a technology called ASLR which he explains:
“ASLR randomizes where various areas of memory (eg: stack, heap, libs, etc) are mapped in the address space of a process. Combined with complementary mitigation techniques such as non-executable memory protection, ASLR makes the exploitation of traditional memory corruption vulnerabilities probabilistically difficult.”
So if you were worried about security on your Android 4.1 device, it looks like you have less to worry now. However that does not mean that you shouldn’t exercise caution, i.e. downloading apps from safe and trusted sources, making sure the ROMs or mods you install are from trusted sources as well.
Filed in . Read more about Android 4.1.