This Android 15 Safety Feature Aims To Keep 2FA Codes Away From Scammers
This Android 15 Safety Feature Aims To Keep 2FA Codes Away From Scammers
As Malaysians, we’re getting quite accustomed to the news of scammers siphoning away people’s hard-earned money, sometimes without the victim knowing; this is especially apparent with the SMS-based 2FA (two-factor authentication) as it is among the least secure methods of authentication.
With Android 15, that may change. Recently, Android Authority discovered a new permission flag on the Android 14 QRP3 Beta 1 update called RECEIVE_SENSITIVE_NOTIFICATIONS. According to the publication, this permission can only be granted to specific applications signed by phone makers, which means any third-party apps is most likely barred from reading certain types of notifications, such as SMS messages.
While Google hasn’t defined what exactly a “sensitive” notification entails, we can infer that an SMS message containing OTP (one-time passwords) is likely considered as one – as malicious apps can read through notifications and copy the code to gain access to certain apps without any interaction from the user during this process.
Another small detail found in Android 14’s source code is something called OTP_REDACTION. It’s responsible for “the redaction of OTP notifications on the lock screen,” and given that it has not found its way into a formal Android 14 release, there’s a good chance it may debut in Android 15 instead.
Following the release convention, Android 15 should see a formal release later this year. For reference, Android 14 was officially introduced last October.
Pokdepinion: Good to have another layer of security – although this should be considered as the last line of defense.
