1. Background
After the release of 360 Qikuo mobile phone in the second half of last year, domestic new mobile phone products will mention similar concepts such as application avatar and WeChat double opening. Some third-party applications also take the avatar/double opening as the highlight to seize the market. For a time, the avatar application has become an essential function of mainstream mobile phones.
2. The use of the product in two places at the same time.
The 2-in-1 product can install multiple identical applications on a mobile phone, so that multiple accounts can be logged in and used at the same time.
The main usage scenarios include: double opening of social accounts, double opening of game sizes, and no need to switch accounts, which saves the hassle of frequent login and greatly improves the experience of users with specific needs.
3. Mainstream doppelganger application products
At present, there are the following products on the market:
? Some are developed by manufacturers and built into mobile phones, such as Xiaomi, Qiku, VIVO, and some third-party applications have independently realized this function, such as LBE parallel space and clone master.
4. Implementation plan
Through practical use and comparison, the current implementation scheme of the application technology of the doppelganger class is summarized as follows:
1) modify APK
Decompile APK, modify the APK package name and signature, disguise APK as another different APK, but for some encrypted APK, it may not be possible.
Product: cloning master
2) Modify the framework
For manufacturers with system modification authority, the framework can be modified to achieve the purpose of double opening.
Products: Xiaomi application avatar, 360 cool mobile phone, Nubian?
3) It is realized by virtualization technology.
A set of virtual technologies, such as virtual frame layer, virtual file system, component management simulating Android, and virtual application process management, replicate APK running in virtual space.
Products: 360 Master, LBE parallel space, graphite software "SecureSpaces"
4) Run with plug-in mechanism.
The apk file can be run without installation and modification, and most functions of communication between the dynamic proxy system and the system—server process are replaced by reflection, thus deceiving the system into thinking that only one APK is running, and deceiving the plug-in into thinking that it has been installed.
Product: DroidPlugin
5. Risk
1) ? Data security risks:
All dual-access application data are filtered by the application avatar, and the data will inevitably pass through the application avatar. In case of mastering the application avatar or using a third-party application avatar application, the data will have security risks. A simple and rude method of decompiling and modifying APK will have similar problems.
2) ? Android policy risk:
The principle of applying the doppelganger function is actually to intercept the process message by listening and replace the reflection, just like a hacker. Maybe Android will ban such applications. Subsequent Android version updates may be restricted.
3) ? Caton, the problem of resource occupation:
Whether using application layer or system layer, it will occupy system resources. If there are too many doppelgangers, the system may get stuck. It can be avoided by limiting the number of doppelgangers.
4) ? Compatibility of third-party applications
? Similar to the risk of Android policy, the application avatar uses similar hacking methods, which may be blocked by third-party applications such as WeChat /QQ. Some third-party application call interfaces are not standardized and may not be monitored and replaced by application avatars, which will cause different compatibility anomalies between avatar applications and their own applications.