Saint Mystique, Who Shape-Shifted the Apps

Patron of Android phones, apps that believed themselves read-only, and sandboxes that assumed too much.

Life

On 27 September 2021 JD.com's Dawn Security Lab described Mystique, a chain of zero-days that broke the Android 11 sandbox. Disproving the assumption that an app's package was immutable, a permissionless app could silently take over the processes of others, from Facebook to WhatsApp to Telegram. The researchers estimated around 800 million devices at risk.

Prayer

O Saint Mystique, who shift shape and take the place of other apps, let our packages stay the ones the system verified. Amen.

How to celebrate

Celebrated by upgrading to Android 12 or installing the September 2021 security patch.

An app that changes skin, an identity that won't hold.