The apparent coding revolution is made possible by a code port of the Alien Dalvik virtualization engine that sits at the heart of the Google Android platform, Infosecurity notes.
According to the 9to5Mac newswire, the Myriad Group – the organisation behind the Alien Dalvik project – has announced support for Apple’s iPad in Alien Dalvik version 2.0.
“As a result, the unimaginable (even unholy) becomes possible: You’ll be able to download, install and run Android software on your Apple-branded tablet. Alien Dalvik wraps each Android app file in its own virtual machine so it kinda feels as if you were running a native iPad app”, said the newswire.
Running Android apps on an iPad may seem attractive, but as Cryptzone asserted, the security ramifications are extreme.
Grant Taylor, the firm's UK vice president, says that computing history is littered with instances of crackers developing methods of running one platform's software on another – with the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga home computing systems being adapted to run Apple Mac software in the late 1980s being classic examples.
“In those instances, users were keen to run Mac software on hardware costing a fraction of the Apple price, but in this case, it seems that the sheer diversity of Android apps – many of which are free – is the attraction for Apple iPad users”, he said.
“Unfortunately, because of the way in which Android apps are running on the non-Android portable device platform, there is a grave danger that on-device IT security software may not be currently capable of spotting any trojans or similar darkware that have been coded to specifically take advantage of the Dalvik port”, he added.
Taylor went on to say that, since we are dealing with an unofficial port of a virtual machine and third-party apps that were coded quite specifically for the Android smartphone and tablet computing platforms, there is a real risk that the ports will have been created by black hat hackers – or cybercriminals – who have an understandable interest in infecting the user's iPad.
The iPad, he added, is an especially attractive target owing to the fact that Apple operates a strict walled garden approach to its iTunes software store, which has been – he noted – the sole source of apps for the iPhone and iPad unless the user has jailbroken their device.
“Until now, of course. It remains to be seen how Apple reacts to this development, but I suspect that defending the integrity of the Apple tablet computer is going to be no easy task where ported Android software is concerned”, he said.
“For this reason, I would urge iPad users not to install these ported Android apps, as they could be an avenue for a world of infection pain that cannot be stopped by most conventional iPad IT security software”, he added.
“This is a radical and dangerous new development on the portable device threats front, and users need to exercise extreme caution as a result.”