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Since the original user doesn't actually know the answer to the question asked, its because
Mobile Linux doesn't support any sort of verified boot like android does, leaving it open to evil maid attacks
Mobile Linux doesn't sandbox applications as well as android, leaving it open to spyware (Think Facebook intercepting Snapchat DMs, not old school steal your credit card spyware)
and I feel like there's a third major big thing but I can't recall it at the moment. Android's security model is genuinely one of the most secure out of any modern operating system. I'm all for Linux phones, but they need to prioritize parity with Android security before I daily drive one.
Yeah, I though of those two & it's just a thing that would get/will get developed if we get to daily drive Linux phones, imho.
Its not like it didn't take Android years to get those two aspects covered.
I mean if you want to get technical, KitKat (4.4 in 2013) introduced verified boot. So from Android 1 to 4.4, it took about 5 years. I believe some form of sandboxing has always existed in Android, but the earliest version I can find online was in Android 5.
I feel like with the backing of Google, they were able to implement such tight security in their mobile OS without much pushback. Mobile Linux in it current state is entirely hobbyists with very few daily drivers. Unless someone can release some stunning Linux mobile hardware that a lot more enthusiasts buy I don't think we will see any sort of major progression in mobile Linux for some time, as the current method most mobile Linux uses is replacing the bootloader on the phone with an open source implementation which takes a lot of man power to achieve, and it would take even more to make it secure.
I would absolutely love to be proven wrong about the time frame however. The sooner secure Linux phones hit the market, the better the world will be.
Didn't know/remember about KitKat verified boot, but the sandboxing thing was prob just to kernel & perhaps some system files, def not user or hardware such as cameras. Including between apps & phone contacts, etc.
And I totally agree about lack of Linux phones (as hardware), the phone market with its size & megacorp subsidies to preinstall spybloatware is a giant hurdle.
And the real reason for closed sauce drivers (as a practice, not as if they should open-sauce old hardware now - that's a security risk for unsuspecting folk & iot ... but we could def transition the practice).
Thank GOD. Application sandboxing makes my Android phone UNUSABLE as a daily driver.
Let the people who can't manage their own software vetting stay with Android and GIVE ME ACCESS TO MY FILE SYSTEM.
I'm not really sure what about the sandboxing makes it difficult to use. Most of the permissions are switches you can just toggle on or off. You can also root phones that run custom Roms (which are the only phones that are worth a damn IMHO) if you really want access to the entire fs.
You're more than welcome to use a less secure system, but most people would generally prefer a secure one.
There's no "mobile Linux". Linux supports Secure Boot just fine, and if a distro wants to sandbox applications that too is done by just configuring Linux to do so (after all, that's what Android does).
Find me a phone that supports secure boot (which is not the same as verified boot btw), and a distro that will run on that phone that properly sandboxes applications (Flatpak does not count, as there are still many security flaws and missing xdg-portals in its implementation.)
Why? That has nothing to do with the topic we're discussing. You can configure Linux as Android does it, or choose not to.
(Secure Boot is what enables "Verified boot" - which is just Android's name for a common sense secure boot loader implementation which is the norm in well protected IoT systems etc)
/ex Sony Mobile dev, nowadays IoT hw/fw ethical hacker
2026 is year of Linux phone
Linux sucks on phones for security
Why?
Linux security on phones is not equivalent due to these factors
but Linux supports these things which are either not exact equivalents or would take an entire Dev team with full time funding to do
Can you find me a phone & OS that meets those requirements
Why? that has nothing to do with the topic of Linux security on phones?
are you being serious with me right now? what about my question wasn't "on topic"? If the hardware and software don't exist, its not going to happen and you're making a hypothetical argument to a factual statement.
I would love some more open hardware. I think it is possible for it to happen as long as there is a market for it. The difficult part is getting a 5G chipset that isn't completely tied to a vendor kernel.
Linux does not suck on phones regarding security. Linux is what brings the security mechanisms faulty ascribed to as being "Android's". See previous posters claiming it was all "extensive modifications" by Android and not just Linux security mechanisms.
Feel free to get a Fairphone 4, sign your Ubuntu Touch image with keys supported by the chipset and off you go. The fact that no one is selling you that has no relevance whatsoever to whether "Linux" supports it.
Android boots in layers that are encrypted with different keys. The first key in the TPM enlocks the base OS up to the lock screen. From there a pin is entered and the rest of the system is decrypted.
If a compromise happened in the OS the phone would just fail to boot since the integrity of the system is validated by the TPM.
Yes, that's how a normal bootchain works in every system ever - like the IoT device running Linux I'm right now working with.
It doesn't though
Standard Linux doesn't check for tampering since that requires hardware and firmware support.
I'm sorry but you really have no idea what you're talking about. Several distros ship with SELinux and Secure Boot by default.
Linux doesn't have the same permission controls. SElinux profiles would need to be manually configured for each app which would take a lot of time.
Mobile linux also doesn't support measured boot which is what is used to protect the system in the case of theft. Before I consider mobile Linux it would be nice if there was a detailed security review of the entire system.
I think this will sort itself out quicker if you show me what "mobile linux" is.
A Linux distro made for mobile devices? Like Plasma mobile, or Ubuntu touch, or Sailfish os
Ubuntu Touch, Postmarket OS and others
You're talking about specific distros as if they're some specific variant of Linux. That's not how it works. Linux is Linux, and if you want to sign your Ubuntu Touch image please go ahead.
??? Are you asking us to compare the kernel alone to a fully fledged OS then?
The mobile linux tends to leave root access enabled plus it doesn't sandbox apps in the same way as Android. If you visit a web page that manages to exploit your web browser all bets are off since lateral movement is trivial inside the OS.
Android on the other hand has strong sandboxing and permission control which means that a compromise in one place shouldn't be able to jump to other places. Android also restricts filesystem access so even if an app is compromised it is difficult to maintain persistence.
Phones has lots of sensors and are great for tracking people. I would rather that my phones OS be extremely secure so that I'm not the victim of spyware.
