Last week, Android 15, the most recent version of Google’s operating system, officially arrived. In addition to new features such as private spaces or application archiving, Android 15 includes several security improvementslike anti-theft protection or the new phishing protections we were talking about today.
Android 15 also adds a function for fight against malicious applications that trick us into stealing the verification codes we receive by SMS. As reported by Android Authority, the new version of Google’s operating system will be able to hide these codes from fraudulent applications.
Android 15 will prevent apps from seeing sensitive notifications
Although Android has long had an API that allows third-party apps to access notifications if we approve access ourselves from Settings, the system does not distinguish between any type of notification. This means that an app can see the two-step verification codes we receive via SMS, which carries great risks if we have unknowingly installed a fraudulent app.
The new version of the Google operating system will take care of preventing access to sensitive notifications to the applications we have installed, even those to which we had previously granted permission to access notifications: only trusted applications will be able to read OTP codes notifications.
With this change, Google prevents apps to which we have granted notification access from seeing the verification codes we use to log in to platforms where we have two-step verification enabled, which carries huge risks if we have installed a fraudulent application.
To achieve this, Android 15 will classify notifications containing verification codes as sensitive and only trusted services will be able to read the content. This way, any other app trying to access a sensitive notification will have no way of reading it. The Android Authority team published a video demonstrating this limitation.
At this point, you’re probably wondering which apps will have access to these types of messages. In addition to the system applicationsonly certain third-party applications will be allowed to receive sensitive notifications: we would be talking about complementary applications for smart watches or similar devices, as well as the default launcher that we use on the mobile.
Via | Android Authority
Cover image | Sergio Asenjo (Xataka Android)
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