Database Info

Miren Browser SECURITY concern

Hi!
I got myself in a real predicament here. I just love this Miren browser (v1.2) from the market. It's actually so unbelievably good, I feel as though I need to make the following request to the community before A LOT of others and myself are totally hooked to it.
So here's the problem, Miren is relatively unknown and from China. Now let's be clear here: I don't have anything against china but I think this does merit that someone takes this thing apart and take a good look at it before we all start punching in our passwords by the thousands. I have fruitlessly spent hours searching online for any info on this browsers integrity. As I unfortunately don't know myself how to e.g. wireshark the phone and check for security flaws, I had hoped some smart linux person here is willing to invest some time and check it out. Thank you

thats a valid concern, the only way to be really sure is
1) find an open source browser and build it yourself
2) go through the code looking for back-doors/root kits/triggers/trojan/keylogger etc
Some choices:
-Firefox mobile
-Default android browser
-Chrome (coming soon I hope)

I see your concern but where do you stop?
What about those "free" apps people mindlessly install? Some have been proven to send data behind the scenes with "rights" loopholes.
Plus, I see you say its "not that its from China..." but... you do seem to have a concern that it's from "China", why not pick on Dolphin Browser?

Good point mentioned by everyone.

Once you have doubt then just stop using it.
You can try Xscope 6 version. It's fast...
Actually there are so many apps that leaking your information regardless if the apps are from China or not. I think all the users should pay attention on the security issues when using smart phone with easy internet access.

ninesky browser - privacy worry

Hi everybody!
I recently started looking for a browser to replace the stock one and I think I installed every possible option there is without giving much thought to the consequences - app permissions and possible violation of my privacy and misuse of my data.
So I found what I thought was a really nice and well-functioning browser called Ninesky from the Android market.
Luckily for me I did not get to use it for long, before I detected a strange pattern - Ninesky would automatically start itself upon boot, connect to a server in China, upload some data and receive some back and then just sit there and wait idly.
The server that it connects to belongs to a company called aBitCool, which is, according to Bloomberg, an ISP in China.
So I kill it off and after a while it's back, doing the same thing. I also noticed a similar behavior for Dolphin HD, except that it would send data just once very quickly after boot-up and then close itself and stay quiet. That led me to Google it a little, which in turn led me to an existing thread about Dolphin HD on this forum.
So here are my noob questions that I hope somebody can answer, please:
1. Can somebody take a look at Ninesky browser and let us all know what kind of data it is transmitting about its users upon boot and maybe even later on during the actual use of the browser? The list of permissions that Ninesky asks for is huge and that makes me a little worried. Also, Ninesky runs a "safety check" of every URL visited. I wonder what that really is.
2. Say it would try to steal information from its users - would it be possible for the app to somehow get access to my stored usernames and passwords from other programs (such as Gmail or Skype) or are these encrypted? I presume that if I were stupid enough to let Ninesky's password manager "remember" my usernames and passwords for certain websites then that information would be easily accessible to them.
3. Can an app with such permissions also function as a keylogger?
4. I can understand why folks here would write some apps on their own and share them with the rest of us. I can understand why a developer or a company would write an app and make one version available for "free" or as an ad supported one and/or offer a premium version for $$$. At the end of the day developers need to eat and pay their bills just like the rest of us and companies are (for the most part) profit-seeking institutions (unless they are GE or MS that have money to burn). That said - why for the love of god would anybody, other than an enthusiast, develop a browser, for which they will not ask for any $$ or won't even display any ads in it? Where is the catch? Now, I know that Opera and Firefox get money from Google to use it as their default search engine, but would this really apply for a few random Chinese companies? Where is the catch?
Thank you.

I was a big supporter of Ninesky but I uninstalled today. It does seem to be constantly running and transmitting data, though what data is being transmitted I don't know. LBE also kept notifying me that it was trying to obtain my location information even when I wasn't using it. I uninstalled it through the Market and left a one star review.
Drunk texted from my MIUI Thunderbolt.

I'm writing a review of about 13 different Android browsers, and came across Ninesky. Has anyone heard anything more about the privacy concerns and what data it might be transmitting?

well....if it keeps requesting the location even while its closed, thats not a good sign...

Not good. This needs addressing.
I have changed my review on Market also until we get some answers.
Cheers to the OP.

I agree. I think my review should come out tomorrow, hopefully the developer reaches out. It really is a decent browser.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium

´I'll leave you here my tests made since Monday with last versions of each app:
==|Boat 4.0.1|==
#Just after starting#
- Ask for GPS location
- 211.151.139.246 (China Network Information Center)
#When going to any website#
- IP from that website
--------------------------------------------------------
==|Dolphin HD 8.6.1|==:silly:
#Just after starting#
- 184.73.86.141 (AMAZON.COM - amazonaws.com - US)
- 65.52.32.12 (Microsoft Corp - US)
- 107.20.57.0 (AMAZON.COM - amazonaws.com - US)
and one more on this IP range type...
- 205.251.242.197 (AMAZON.COM - amazonaws.com - US)
- 205.251.242.165 (AMAZON.COM - amazonaws.com - US)
- 72.21.195.98 (AMAZON.COM - amazonaws.com - US)
#When going to any website#
- IP from that website
--------------------------------------------------------
==|Firefox 14.0.1|==
#Just after starting#
- No Ping
#When going to any website#
- 80.67.92.43 (AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES US) *
- 93.184.219.20 (EdgeCast Networks - US) *
- IP from that website
* note: not always, most of the times just go to IP website we asked
--------------------------------------------------------
==|Opera 12.0.4|==:victory:
#Just after starting#
- No Ping
#When going to any website#
- IP from that website
note: DON'T use Opera Turbo or EVERY single info WILL pass through their servers...
--------------------------------------------------------
It's pretty obvious to me who are the most privacy oriented here...
STAY WAY FROM OPERA MINI AND DOLPHIN MINI AND ALL MINI VERSIONS. They process all info on their server first for speed.

Anyone researched Xscope or could research this browser?
If you explain how, I could do it myself!!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

But the OP got it wrong with money burning by GE & MS. There's no such thing, its all business. Just to let you know, in the browser wars - Firefox was Google's first step into browsing. Then came Chrome.
For all privacy concerns, LBE Privacy Guard is a good option. Though its Korean, if am not wrong.
Well, finally there's options out there. Nobody is forcing us to download, install & use their apps.
Sent from my MT11i using Tapatalk 2

bombayboy said:
But the OP got it wrong with money burning by GE & MS. There's no such thing, its all business. Just to let you know, in the browser wars - Firefox was Google's first step into browsing. Then came Chrome.
For all privacy concerns, LBE Privacy Guard is a good option. Though its Korean, if am not wrong.
Well, finally there's options out there. Nobody is forcing us to download, install & use their apps.
Sent from my MT11i using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree with everything BUT Firefox was never connected to Google like Chrome. Firefox's current existence is owed almost exclusively to its search partnership with Google wherein Mozilla Corp receives a portion of ad revenue from Google queries initiated from Firefox's search bar. This revenue amounts to tens of millions of dollars. But Mozilla and Google Relations Strained Due to Chrome.
Firefox its independent and don't collect your data like Chrome/Google do...

sushidog said:
Agree with everything BUT Firefox was never connected to Google like Chrome. Firefox's current existence is owed almost exclusively to its search partnership with Google wherein Mozilla Corp receives a portion of ad revenue from Google queries initiated from Firefox's search bar. This revenue amounts to tens of millions of dollars. But Mozilla and Google Relations Strained Due to Chrome.
Firefox its independent and don't collect your data like Chrome/Google do...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Connected with reference to Google promoting & supporting Firefox before they decided to go with Chrome.
I still use Firefox, Aurora & Chrome
Sent from my MT11i using Tapatalk 2

If you're not paying it, you are the product being sold.
Remember this when downloading free apps which are not open source.

DnaPolymerase said:
If you're not paying it, you are the product being sold.
Remember this when downloading free apps which are not open source.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like facebook which sells our data
Sent from my MT11i using Tapatalk 2

Calamitous with Ninesky
Hi,
I stumbled upon XDA Developers forum today and I was so grateful to find this write-up; it was the only honest review I could find of Ninesky. So, thank you.
I want to share an experience our family went through a few weeks ago. Perhaps it will answer some of your questions and alert some users out there of what this browser could do. We have an unfortunate incident happen to our child: My little boy received an android tablet for a gift this October. He was so eager downloading all the apps and games he could find, and in about a month, it was completely personalized. We regularly monitored his downloads, the games he played, and the apps he utilized.
Much to our regret, we really did not give much thought to the browsers he had installed. He had more than three at one point and Ninesky was always in the background. Sadly, whenever he would search for apps, we later discovered Ninesky directly linked him to several stores that was not common to Google or Firefox. Some of them had Anime icons (mostly innocent looking), nicely titled games for their tiles. Some apps were legitimate and very cool games; however, some apps were direct links to hard-core porn websites and a whole universe of filth (not excluding child-porn). They attached themselves to the tablet like trojans and was quite aggressive in linking the user to overseas app stores (inappropriate). Every time a game would be uploaded from one of these stores, it gives auto-access to these atrocious websites and videos. Because Ninsky always functioned in incognito--one of it's touted features--we almost had no access to the history or cookies when this browser was used. Almost anyway ... it took us hours (and some hacking) to track and identify what was really going on, the seeming source of it was this "sophisticated" browser.
So the catch may be that this browser has no advertisements because it plays host to several groups funding the porn industry. That's my suspicion anyway, based on what we went through.
I cannot begin to say how grieved we are that our son was exposed to all this, especially that we discovered it so much later. We thought we paid attention. That being said, he's back to playing with his remote control car outside, where life is a bit less complex.
More power to your forum and thanks again.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
xenofont said:
Hi everybody!
I recently started looking for a browser to replace the stock one and I think I installed every possible option there is without giving much thought to the consequences - app permissions and possible violation of my privacy and misuse of my data.
So I found what I thought was a really nice and well-functioning browser called Ninesky from the Android market.
Luckily for me I did not get to use it for long, before I detected a strange pattern - Ninesky would automatically start itself upon boot, connect to a server in China, upload some data and receive some back and then just sit there and wait idly.
The server that it connects to belongs to a company called aBitCool, which is, according to Bloomberg, an ISP in China.
So I kill it off and after a while it's back, doing the same thing. I also noticed a similar behavior for Dolphin HD, except that it would send data just once very quickly after boot-up and then close itself and stay quiet. That led me to Google it a little, which in turn led me to an existing thread about Dolphin HD on this forum.
So here are my noob questions that I hope somebody can answer, please:
1. Can somebody take a look at Ninesky browser and let us all know what kind of data it is transmitting about its users upon boot and maybe even later on during the actual use of the browser? The list of permissions that Ninesky asks for is huge and that makes me a little worried. Also, Ninesky runs a "safety check" of every URL visited. I wonder what that really is.
2. Say it would try to steal information from its users - would it be possible for the app to somehow get access to my stored usernames and passwords from other programs (such as Gmail or Skype) or are these encrypted? I presume that if I were stupid enough to let Ninesky's password manager "remember" my usernames and passwords for certain websites then that information would be easily accessible to them.
3. Can an app with such permissions also function as a keylogger?
4. I can understand why folks here would write some apps on their own and share them with the rest of us. I can understand why a developer or a company would write an app and make one version available for "free" or as an ad supported one and/or offer a premium version for $$$. At the end of the day developers need to eat and pay their bills just like the rest of us and companies are (for the most part) profit-seeking institutions (unless they are GE or MS that have money to burn). That said - why for the love of god would anybody, other than an enthusiast, develop a browser, for which they will not ask for any $$ or won't even display any ads in it? Where is the catch? Now, I know that Opera and Firefox get money from Google to use it as their default search engine, but would this really apply for a few random Chinese companies? Where is the catch?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Time for a New Non-Profit Browser Project

Mozilla has lost its way. Technically it's not even a non-profit any longer, and it no longer behaves like it. Capriciousness and indifference to developer concerns is rampant.
For me, the change in the nature of the file browser is the straw which broke the camel's back. The file name now spills uncontrollably over the page, disfiguring any layout which surrounds it. Just as it does in Google's browser.
The direction Google is forcing the web into is contrary to the original vision of it as designed by Tim Berners-Lee. In response to user ire, the Mozilla team again and again blames Google, alleging that Google's design is "ultracompetitive" and that they "have to catch up" to them. Yet if you read their blogs they make no secret that the new standards and design choices are being made in collaboration with Google (HTML 5 is apparently the brainchild of a pair hailing from Google and Mozilla, respectively... or at least that's what they want you to think).
For me, the burden that the file browser now imposes is something that's just not practical from an implementation standpoint. With this change, web browser form design no longer even competitive to XWindow. The whole thing seems like it was dreamed up by one of the jerks on a reality talent contest... and a takeover by one of those very jerks seems to be the most probable cause of this particular miscarriage of philosophy, just as happened at Microsoft with XBox One last month. But I'm not about to clamor for a figurehead's head: just as at MS, something is rotten at Mozilla. We need a new seed to sprout that can take us into the future. A seed that will respect the intelligence of the people who have to now placed their faith in Mozilla, only to be told by the organization they exalted that they aren't as smart as it. This new organization, if it is not to suffer the same fate which hangs over Mozilla, will do right what Mozilla heedlessly does wrong, including:
respect for user freedom and competence.
avoids placing undue burdens on the designer
avoids obfusticating its code with impenetrable, bug-ridden COMs.
is open source.
In short, it'll be friendly and it'll actually listen to people who aren't ready to fork over their whole lives to an endless reinvention of the wheel like we are seeing at Mozilla.
Free browsers are nice and all, but they just aren't working out. We're getting what we deserve for letting Google take everything over and letting Mozilla get by without relying exclusively on user donations. The result is a corrupted organization and now, a faulty product. I'm prepared to pay a little for a good browser that respects common sense design practicalities. What about the rest of you, will you sacrifice the price of a couple large pizzas for a decent web browser minus the drama?
I've done my bit to try to change Mozilla's downward trajectory. I went on their forums and their chats and told them, this stuff doesn't work. They're making things hard. Their response was that they didn't really give two cents for the opinion of anyone who wasn't down in the trenches with them writing code in their incredibly complicated wrapper context. Like you, I've got other priorities. There are people out there with more experience and, quite frankly, better math skill that can do this job and get a lot more out of it. I want to give them the chance to do just that. Tired of the betrayals, just want to download my browser updates and be done with it... is that too much to ask? I don't think it is, and I hope you don't, either.

I've never tried to write code for a browser before, never even researched it. I'd be happy to help, but I'd like to see a mock GUI first to see how clean of a browser you're shooting for. Mock one up?

t3hcurs3 said:
I've never tried to write code for a browser before, never even researched it. I'd be happy to help, but I'd like to see a mock GUI first to see how clean of a browser you're shooting for. Mock one up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I was looking around and it seems like there is this browser called NetSurf which may be doing everything right. There's no build for Windows or for mobile, which is an issue, but its libraries are in C which offers little room for obfustication a la C++. Should be portable to Java... I think if there was a windows build this browser could take off.
Although I don't really need Windows anymore. I'd just as well settle for a mobile version. There's also Amaya, but it has a reputation for poor ease of use and excessive minimalism. And there's Dillo which is stuck in a timewarp.
There is a question of where they're getting their funding from. However, they seem to be far enough along that if they did start to pull crap it would be easy enough to fork, and really I don't think the web needs much more technology beyond what it already has at this point. I need more information though. What do you think?
Sewrizer said:
This is the best advice I can give as a humble user, and the point stated above makes me believe that this is how things should be created from the beginning. A new browser has the advantage of being based on the present ideas, and since the devs have nothing to lose they can introduce off the wall features, original ideas which others didn't dare to add for fear of losing users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I agree with this. I asked Moz's JS engine people why they didn't program Firefox to use webworker technology to manage events, so as not to tie up the browser when waiting for file access, and they said it "wasn't in the spec" and "wasn't a priority". And when I requested that they program the canvas API to access multiple cores, they told me to take it up with W3C. Thinking like is not gonna move anybody forward.
I have no issues with Firefox's UI... it's its API which kills me.
EDIT: OK Netsurf is definitely not ready for prime time, but it certainly has potential. I think if it were combined with Mozilla's SpiderMonkey it would be able to handle Javascript alright... I don't really care it's slower than Chrome from the outset... could always be improved. Really dynamic recompilation is the state of the art. I like that it's written in C, and uses GTK and SDL. Gonna look into this...

Here's some evidence of how bad Mozilla has become.
Nevermind... due to new poster restrictions I can't post my links.

[Q] List of Android Applications with Issues (power drain, leaks etc etc)

Hi again,
Bit of another weird question but i'm looking up applications that have issues such as memory leaks, Power drain Issues and a like. TBH, any application there is out there from sat nav to gaming, From simple notepads to full office suites. Everything and anything basically. Wanting to make a comprehensive list so that when we get our 'reports' sent to us it will flag up the particular application the customer is using that may be a issue. Even ones that have issues with certain versions of android.
Again, Thanks for any help

Ok then, Let me rephrase the question,
What applicatiuons do people know about that cause issues. From malware like GluMobi to Memory leaks of mGlow or Resource Hogs like hotmail to network hogs like netflix. Security issues like the one in apache cordova 3.5 and below to simple storage eaters like The SIms Freeplay.
ANY issue, not matter how big or small basically that can cause ANY potential problem. Technically, Its going be a HUGE list
Bugs, Battery Drain, Issues with certain versions of Android, battery drain, LITERALLY anything, No matter how big or small.
Thanks again

It's flat-out impossible to maintain an accurate list of what you're asking for. Most issues reported in most cases would be fixed within a few days as the apps get updated. Simply asking people to report these things is also a dangerous precedence and an ineffective way of doing it as there will be prejudice left and right, users reporting subjective information that isn't technically true and/or applicable to their specific phones and/or ROMs only. And how would you make comparison? How slow, leaky, disruptive etc does an app need to be to make it on the list? What if an app gets added that had real issues, gets fixed the day after, and then remains on your list for several more months because no new reports are coming in? It would be rather unfair to the developer(s).
Any truly disruptive apps are eventually removed and banned from ALL app repositories as the app host gets complaints about it (like Google bans apps from Play Store), so there's no reason to make a list of them here.
If i misunderstand your intentions with this list, i'm sorry. But you have more explaining to do before this idea makes any sense.

RobbyRobbb said:
It's flat-out impossible to maintain an accurate list of what you're asking for. Most issues reported in most cases would be fixed within a few days as the apps get updated. Simply asking people to report these things is also a dangerous precedence and an ineffective way of doing it as there will be prejudice left and right, users reporting subjective information that isn't technically true and/or applicable to their specific phones and/or ROMs only. And how would you make comparison? How slow, leaky, disruptive etc does an app need to be to make it on the list? What if an app gets added that had real issues, gets fixed the day after, and then remains on your list for several more months because no new reports are coming in? It would be rather unfair to the developer(s).
Any truly disruptive apps are eventually removed and banned from ALL app repositories as the app host gets complaints about it (like Google bans apps from Play Store), so there's no reason to make a list of them here.
If i misunderstand your intentions with this list, i'm sorry. But you have more explaining to do before this idea makes any sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im in total agreement with what you say and this is just an extra feature that we are adding to what we already have. I work for a company in the UK and our intentions with this is we already have a system that checks clients hardware/software for what it has as we do a lot of work for many other big companies in the uk (all of them basically) as we have some very good engineers here. THe idea behind this database is just to flag certain things that may be causing issues and its more for internally than anything external although that as come up in meetings about adding this feature to the program we plan to release in the near future where 'certain' clients will be able to access our databases with our app we provide them. This is all preliminary at the moment and as i say, For our internal use only. This is why im looking for such a vast catalogue of problems, whether rumour or not
is not an issue at present. I'm just building the bare bone of this to test out how it works against our other databases and how easy/effective it will be working with what we already have.
Thanks for your answer and that's the conclusion we were at also. The fact that pre bundled software as total access to all information is kind of worring which we have dug up. This allows other programs that can get access to any of that information if it can pull a request from said bundled software. Example would be a program that requests use from the bundled program to read a PDF file (with the bundled software been a PDF reader). This is given access and then allows all the privileges of the bundled software. This is very very dangerous and a concern as most phone companies chuck plenty of bundled software (often not wanted by the consumer) on to there phones.
I was working on the 2G,3G,4G radios on all major phones the other week so im accustomed to A LOT of data entry
Thanks for your help my friend, Its good to know what we thought would be true but we have dug up a few other issues by doing this, So its not all a loss
EDIT: A piece of software still available and apparently malware/spyware is droiddream (bicchali.harish.droiddream) from what i can find on it. Also, Livelocker (net.livelocker) looks as if its got malware/spyware. As you say, What defines spyware is different in different peoples opinions but me personally am dubious about everything, As i think everyone should be but they are not. People just don't care as long as they have their facebook and crap lol. Point of interest about facebook, Funded to the tune of 12.8 Million by In-Q-Tel to get going, WHich was formed by the CIA. Just a little nugget there

I'm surprised no one as ANYTHING to say on the matter, Even if it's just on a whim that they hate app for x, y,& z. I have plenty personally lol

The javascript on XDA's webpages is becoming extensive

There are so many javascripts running on any web page on XDA that even with a newer laptop, and fast internet connection it is starting to take, what is in my opinion, is a considerable amount of time to load webpages. I had to go into my chrome webpage settings and actually block XDA from loading java on chrome.
I really do not want to do this but it should not lag when trying to just skim thru webpages due to the overwhelming amount of script running at any given time.
I do understand a lot of this is advertising, and that is how you keep the page alive and paid for, but can't some of it be just jpeg or other formats, as this is starting to become a problem. Just making an observation. I love the website and I like the animations, etc that come along with java, but not at the expense of it taking a lot of time to load a single page due to the massive amount, or complex script eating at my computer's resources. Can you possibly scale some of it back a little. I can't even imagine trying to view with a older computer, this must be frustrating. Just a friendly observation and suggestion. THANKS :good: