Multi-Persona

Android
Oren Laadan
orenl@cellrox.com
Android Builders 2014

www.cellrox.com
aprilzosia

Mobile devices have multiple uses - the device needs to reflect that.

Android Builders 2014

Security Use Case

Personal Phone
Business Phone

Android Builders 2014

Do People Remember?
Only download apps from trusted sources, such as reputable app
markets. Remember to look at the developer name, reviews, and star
ratings.
Always check the permissions an app requests. Use common sense
to ensure that the permissions an app requests match the features
the app provides.
Be alert for unusual behavior on your phone. Suspicious behavior
could be a sign that your phone is infected. These behaviors may
include unusual SMS or network activity.
Install a mobile security app for your phone that scans every app you
download to ensure its safe.

Android Builders 2014

No, They Dont!

Only download apps from trusted sources, such as reputable app
markets. Remember to look at the developer name, reviews, and star
ratings.
Always check the permissions an app requests. Use common sense
to ensure that the permissions an app requests match the features
the app provides.
Be alert for unusual behavior on your phone. Suspicious behavior
could be a sign that your phone is infected. These behaviors may
include unusual SMS or network activity.
Install a mobile security app for your phone that scans every app you
download to ensure its safe.

Android Builders 2014

More Use Cases

Personal Phone
Business Phone
Children Phone
Privacy Phone
Secure Phone

Android Builders 2014

Even More Use Cases

Personal Phone
Business Phone
Children Phone
Privacy Phone
Secure Phone
Social Phone
Guest Phone
Dev Phone
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Multi-Persona for Mobile Devices

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Mobile Device Virtualization

Typical device
Android
applications

Android
environment

Linux
kernel
Device
hardware
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Android Builders 2014

Nobody Will Notice?

Performance Transparent
Application Transparent
Platform Transparent
User Transparent
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Android Builders 2014

Hardware Virtualization
Virtual Phone

Virtual Phone

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Android
environment

Linux
kernel

Linux
kernel

Typical device

Linux
kernel

Hypervisor Type I
Device
hardware

Device
hardware
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Android Builders 2014

Hardware Virtualization
Suitable for servers
standard hardware
slow server replace rate
strong security model
Sub-optimal for mobile devices
burden to support devices
reduced performance / battery-life
sub-optimal use of resources
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Android Builders 2014

Operating System Virtualization

Namespaces
provide a group of processes with the
illusion that they are the only processes
on the system.

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Android Builders 2014

Namespace (r)evolution
Kernel namespaces:
mount-ns:
2.4.19
uts-ns:
2.6.19
ipc-ns:
2.6.19
pid-ns:
2.6.24
net-ns:
2.6.24-2.6.29
user-ns:
2.6.23-3.8
System calls: clone(), unshare(), setns()
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Android Builders 2014

Operating System Virtualization

Virtual Phone

Virtual Phone

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Android
environment

Typical device

Linux
kernel

Namespaces
Linux
kernel

Device
hardware
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Device
hardware
Android Builders 2014

Device Diversity
A typical collection of peripherals available
on a modern smartphone or tablet:

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Headset

Microphone

Speakers

(Touch) Screen

Power

Buttons

Telephony

Bluetooth

GPS

WiFi

Framebuffer

GPU

Compass

Camera(s)

Accelerometer

RTC/Alarms

Android Builders 2014

Device Interactivity
Users interact with a device one application at
a time, expect consistent user experience:
Split the attention of resources between the
multiple persona, depending on context.

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Android
applications

Android
environment

Framebuf

Linux
kernel

Device hardware
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Android Builders 2014

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Framebuf

Linux
kernel

Device hardware
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Android Builders 2014

Android
applications

Android
environment

Input

Framebuf

Linux
kernel

Device hardware
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Android Builders 2014

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Input

Framebuf

Linux
kernel

Device hardware
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Android Builders 2014

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Device Namespace
Input

Framebuf

Linux
kernel

Device hardware
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Android Builders 2014

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Device Namespace
Input

Framebuf

Touch

Proximty

Linux
kernel

Device hardware
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Android Builders 2014

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Device Namespace

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Android Builders 2014

LED

Device hardware

GPS

Input

Framebuf

Touch

Buttons

Proximty

Linux
kernel

Mobile Virtualization Challenges

Challenge 1: device diversity
plethora of peripherals not virtualized
key logical devices not virtualized
virtualize physical & logical devices

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Android Builders 2014

Mobile Virtualization Challenges

Challenge 1: device diversity
plethora of peripherals not virtualized
key logical devices not virtualized
virtualize physical & logical devices
Challenge 2: interactive usage
users interact with one app at a time
foreground vs. background apps
multiplex access based on context
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Android Builders 2014

Device Namespaces
Device diversity: traditional virtualization
create the illusion that processes interact
exclusively with a set of devices
hide the fact that other processes interact
with the same set of devices
Device major/minor (e.g. loop, dm), and
device setup and internal state
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Android Builders 2014

Traditional virtualization
Examples:

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alarm-dev
binder
logger
wakelocks

Android Builders 2014

Traditional virtualization
Typical driver:

Virtualized driver?

- global driver state

- per open fd state
- open() is special
- read/write/ioctl etc
use per open fd state
(and global state)
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Android Builders 2014

Traditional virtualization
Typical driver:

Virtualized driver:

- global driver state

- per open fd state

- per-devns state

- open() is special
- read/write/ioctl etc
use per open fd state
(and global state)
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Android Builders 2014

Traditional virtualization
Typical driver:

Virtualized driver:

- global driver state

- per open fd state

- per-devns state
- per open fd state points
to per-devns state

- open() is special
- read/write/ioctl etc
use per open fd state
(and global state)
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Android Builders 2014

Traditional virtualization
Typical driver:

Virtualized driver:

- global driver state

- per open fd state

- open() is special

- read/write/ioctl etc
use per open fd state
(and global state)
40

- per-devns state
- per open fd state points
to per-devns state
- obtain per-devns state
and perform in context

Android Builders 2014

Traditional virtualization
Typical driver:

Virtualized driver:

- global driver state

- per open fd state

- open() is special

- read/write/ioctl etc
use per open fd state
(and global state)
41

- per-devns state
- per open fd state points
to per-devns state
- obtain per-devns state
and perform in context
- read/write/ioctl etc
use per open fd state
and per-devns state
(and global state)

Android Builders 2014

Traditional virtualization
A peek at the code:

alarm-dev
binder

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Android Builders 2014

Device Namespaces
Interactivity: context-aware virtualization
concept of an active namespace, with
which the user actually interacts
ability to switch namespaces, to allow
interacting with multi-namespaces
users really interact with one namespace
at a time
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Android Builders 2014

Device Namespaces
Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

(Device) Namespaces

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Android Builders 2014

LED

Device
hardware

GPS

Input

Framebuf

Touch

Buttons

Proximty

Linux
kernel

Framebuffer ?
VP

VP

VP

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Android
environment

Framebuffer
Linux kernel
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Android Builders 2014

Framebuffer: device namespaces

Foreground

Background

Background

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Android
environment

Virtualized Framebuffer

Framebuffer

RAM

Linux kernel
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Android Builders 2014

Framebuffer: device namespaces

Foreground

Background

Background

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Android
environment

Virtualized Framebuffer

Framebuffer

RAM

Linux kernel
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Android Builders 2014

Framebuffer: device namespaces

Background

Foreground

Background

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Android
environment

Virtualized Framebuffer

Framebuffer

RAM

Linux kernel
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Android Builders 2014

Input ?
VP

VP

VP

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Android
environment

input
Linux kernel
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Android Builders 2014

Input: device namespaces

Foreground

Background

Background

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Android
environment

Virtualized Input

Input
Linux kernel
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Android Builders 2014

Input: device namespaces

Background

Foreground

Background

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
applications

Android
environment

Android
environment

Android
environment

Virtualized Input

Input
Linux kernel
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Android Builders 2014

Context-aware virtualization
Typical driver:

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Virtualized driver:

- global driver state

- per open fd state

- open() is special

- read/write/ioctl etc
use per open fd state
(and global state)

- per-devns state
- per open fd state points
to per-devns state
- obtain per-devns state
and perform in context
- read/write/ioctl etc
use per open fd state
and per-devns state
(and global state)

Android Builders 2014

Context-aware virtualization
Typical driver:

Virtualized driver:

- global driver state

- per open fd state

- open() is special

- read/write/ioctl etc
use per open fd state
(and global state)

- per-devns state
- per open fd state points
to per-devns state
- obtain per-devns state
and perform in context
- read/write/ioctl etc
use per open fd state
and per-devns state
(and global state)

per devns state:

active flag (foreground/background)
callbacks (create, destroy, switch)
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Android Builders 2014

Context-aware virtualization
A peek at the code:

55

input layer
backlight
LED

Android Builders 2014

Device namespaces in action

A quick hands on with the Android emulator

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User-experience ?

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Android Builders 2014

User-experience
Identity
Awareness
Switching
Sharing

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Android Builders 2014

Unique UX
Background persona tab

Background persona icon

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Foreground persona tab

Foreground persona icon

Android Builders 2014

Experimental Benchmarks

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CPU (Linpack)
Graphics (Neocore)
Storage (Quadrant)
Web browsing (SunSpider)
Networking (custom)

Android Builders 2014

Runtime Overhead (Idle)

1.40
Baseline

1-VP

2-VP

3-VP

4-VP

5-VP

1.20

1.00
0.80

0.60
0.40

0.20
0.00
Linpack

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NeoCore Quadrant
I/O
Android Builders 2014

Sun
Spider

Network

Runtime Overhead (load)

1.40
Baseline

1-VP

2-VP

3-VP

4-VP

5-VP

1.20
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
Linpack

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NeoCore Quadrant
I/O
Android Builders 2014

Sun
Spider

Network

Power Consumption Overhead

1.40
1.20

Baseline
2-VP
4-VP

1-VP
3-VP
5-VP

1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00

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After 4hrs
Music

After 12hrs
Idle

Android Builders 2014

Summary
Multi-persona Android
Device namespaces (?!)
More info:
https://github.com/Cellrox/devns-patches/wiki

orenl@cellrox.com

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Android Builders 2014