Google warned about the dangers of unofficial set-top boxes with Android TV

Miscellaneous / by admin / May 29, 2023

Distinguishing a real Android TV from an open-source counterpart is easy if you know where to look.

Since the beginning of the year, more and more reports of unofficial Android TV boxes have appeared on the Web, which can be found in popular online stores. So, in January, a Canadian cybersecurity expert toldthat his Android TV set-top box bought from Amazon came with a "bonus" in the form of malware. It allowed hackers to generate money by watching ads that the set-top box ran in the background without the knowledge of users.

It was about AllWinner T95, a popular Android 10 set-top box, which is sold by hundreds of sellers on Amazon and AliExpress. It's not clear how prevalent malware is in the firmware of these consoles, but another researcher discovered similar activity in other set-top boxes manufactured by RockChip and AllWinner.

Google has finally responded to the messages and published official response on the Android TV support forum:

We recently received questions about set-top boxes built with the Android Open Source Project and sold as Android TV devices.

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Some of them may also come with Google and Play Store apps not licensed by Google, which means these devices are not covered by Play Protect.

Google Support

Devices built on AOSP (which is an open source version of Android) can ship with Google apps even without a license from Google itself. This can confuse users who are not ready to understand the differences.

The main difference comes down to support for Google Play Protect, a set of components for online and offline protection of Android devices. If there is no protection, the device can execute malicious code, as in the ad clicker example.

Checking if Google Play Protect is supported on your set-top box is easy. Launch Google Play, click on the profile icon in the upper right corner, and then click on Play Protect. The description of the function will indicate whether there is protection on the gadget.

You can also check if the manufacturer of the set-top box is in the list of Android TV partners on this page.