wordpress-mobile / wordpress-mobile/WordPress-Android

Enable StrictMode security tool

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[Type] Discovery [Type] Enhancement Testing
Dominant language
Kotlin
Stars
3.2k
Forks
1.4k
Avg merge
1d 11h
Merged PRs (30d)
69

Description

StrictMode is a developer tool which detects things you might be doing by accident and brings them to your attention so you can fix them. Currently, it's commented in WordPressDebug.
We had a security vulnerability (Slack ref: p1656678398776749-slack-CRA4UEQQ3) caused by unsafe intent launch which could be detected by StrictMode's detectUnsafeIntentLaunch().
In this issue, we need to

  • add detectUnsafeIntentLaunch() in StrictMode detections,
  • investigate other detections that might be beneficial,
  • check if enabling StrictMode have any significant drawback, if not, enable it for all debug builds,
  • enable StrictMode detections in automated tests of CI,
  • investigate other security tools. (If we can find good tools, we can use them in place of StrictMode or addition to StrictMode)

If these are a lot for a PR, multiple PRs can fix this issue.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with WordPress/src/debug/java/org/wordpress/android/WordPressDebug.java and the linked Android StrictMode documentation. Review the requested unsafe-intent detection and other useful detections, then assess debug-build and CI-test impact. Done means suitable StrictMode or replacement security checks are enabled without significant drawbacks, with separate PRs if needed.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
android, java
Domain
mobile-dev, security, testing-qa
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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