Open Source @lemmy.ml borzthewolf @lemmy.world 1 yr. ago

Seeing a lot of outdated apps being recommended, is that safe?

I've come to realize that a lot of foss android apps are pretty outdated and usually abandoned. Is that even safe to use? Like even the fdroid archive repository, are those safe to use? I'm still rather new to the foss world, but in my mind it seems a very outdated app is probably not safe or am I missing something here?

23 comments

It depends on the app. A local markdown editor without any network functionality? Probably safe. A password manager with online functionalities? I would look for something else.
- What about yet another call blocker? Seems that involves more sensitive info obviously
  
  It gets the number that's ringing and compares it to a database it downloaded. It's not doing anything with your sensitive data.
  
  At most if you decide to check online reviews against a number it'll search the phone number online, but you get a warning beforehand and you don't have to do that.
These are code health smells. Looking for the activity in a repository the number of contributors, the frequency of updates, these are all let you get a feeling for how well cared for a project is. Sometimes that doesn't matter, but it is definitely something you should factor in.
- For any app that isn't network-facing and that works with protocols that haven't been changed in a long time, there is no point worrying over how "active" the development is on an app. If nothing has been broken, then nothing needs fixing. My music player has had all the features it needs for a decade, and continues to work to this day. Why change a good thing?
  
  For those kind of apps I'd love to see like a heartbeat commit. Everything's fine. 2020 nothing to change. All's working well. Just code smell
  
  Gotcha. But what's stopping cyber criminals from seeing these abandoned repos and possibly taking over and implement malware or what not
- So just because fdroid says an app hasn't been updated since 2020, that doesn't necessarily mean its not being maintend or is abandoned?
  
  Its a strong indicator it isn't being maintained, and it is abandoned. But its not a guarantee, some code is very mature, but its the exception rather then the rule
I look at the latest release date. At leisure time, I would also go and check repository and issue tracker to see whether something serious is being ignored. If it's crucial for business, I would spare time investigating the source code itself.

I would not necessarily say that many apps uploaded to F-Droid and other repositories are unsafe, because I don't have all that energy to audit anything I use. What helps me to stay on the safe side is reading into things - enclosed descriptions and names may look like a small factor to some, once they tread the sources, but it saves me both the time and trouble. Sloppily written stuff usually implies a sloppy code, a lax attention to details on the developer's side.
- Good tips, these are exactly what I need. Like which repos do you check out; like github and gitlab?
  
  Wherever the app's code is on. I usually go around finding the link in the store page or through the search engine. Most of the time, they end up on GitHub and GitLab, sometimes on Codeberg or other instance.
  
  Paranoid section ahead: Don't blindly trust the issues list, closed or open, because there are still ways to permanently delete those, hence giving bad actor a way to hide evidence of the on-going security problem.
  
  In F-Droid, there is always a link to the repo. In english it is probably something like "source (code)". It is in the collapsable menu under "Links".
- Plus there should be some tools or scanners to look at the app for any potential dangers, like play protect, right?
I am not sure what you mean with the repo archive being outdated, the latest commit was 30 minutes ago. Could you please tell us more what apps you are referring to and in what way you find the repo archive being outdated? Might be easier to answer your question that way.

Also bear in mind that its quite common for stable releases to be some time apart from each other. Florisboard for example had its latest release over a year ago, but is being actively maintained.
- Yea so, just about most of the apps on the market. Pick a category and once you get through the top apps that are up to date, not far down the list the rest of the apps list their current version and they just get older as you go hence sort by new. There's more outdated apps (I mean by like years) that truly aren't far from the up to date versions
Depends what the app does, like some others have mentioned if it's transferring sensitive data over the internet, I would want it to be updated. But if it's something local like a call blocker checking a local database I wouldn't worry about it.

The other downside for the call blocker app is the database could be outdated, not sure how their mechanism works for that.
- Vep very true!

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