# A Multi-Tier Security Analysis of Official Car Management Apps for Android
## 5 Low-Level Static Analysis
### Manifest Analysis
Task affinity [96] is related to an activity that will be re-parented to, using the proper attribute (_allowTaskReparenting_). Furthermore, the task affinity is connected with the main activity which will be launched first when the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK is called. Note that all apps have the same task affinity by default. This is a major issue because an attacker could potentially capture and read intents that are transferred between activities. For example, CVE-2020-0096, dubbed as \"Standhogg 2.0\", can potentially exploit this issue in unpatched Android OS v8, 8.1, and 9. The last three columns of Table 7 recapitulate information on a trinity of other important aspects related to the contents of the manifest file, namely, _Content_, _Launch_, and _Cleartext_. The first is related to the content provider [97], namely, an app component that interacts with a repository. Content providers are handy for apps that wish to provide data to other apps. This means that the content provider must permit other apps to access its data; if no permissions are set for a content provider component in the <provider> manifest element, any other app can access this content provider for both reading and writing. It is \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l l l l l l} \hline \hline
**App Name** & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Intent-Filter on**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Intent-Filter off**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Content**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Launch**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Cleartext**} \\ \cline{2-2} \cline{6-8}  & **Service** & & & & & & & & \\ \hline Volvo On Call & 3 & 8 & 3 & 2 & 3 & 2 & + & – & – \\ BMW Connected & 1 & 9 & 3 & 2 & 4 & 0 & – & – & – \\ Mp BMW & 2 & 2 & 0 & 3 & 4 & 0 & – & – & – \\ MNI Connected & 1 & 7 & 3 & 2 & 5 & 0 & – & – & – \\ MNI & 2 & 2 & 0 & 3 & 4 & 0 & – & – & – \\ Mercedes me & 0 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 1 & 1 & – & – & – \\ My Alfa Connect & 1 & 0 & 2 & 0 & 0 & 1 & – & – & – \\ FAT & 1 & 0 & 2 & 0 & 0 & 1 & – & – & – \\ My Uconnect & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 2 & – & – & – \\ UConnect LIVE & 1 & 2 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & – & – & + \\ My Ferrari & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & – & – & – \\ FordFBASH IRC & 0 & 3 & 2 & 0 & 0 & 15 & – & – & + \\ MITUSIBISH IRC & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & – & – & – \\ OUTLANDER PREV RC & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & – & + & – \\ NissmanConnect & 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & – & – & + \\ My Citron & 2 & 4 & 4 & 0 & 1 & 1 & + & – & + \\ MpS & 1 & 5 & 4 & 1 & 1 & 1 & + & – & + \\ myQpel & 2 & 3 & 4 & 0 & 1 & 0 & + & – & + \\ MTPELGOT & 2 & 5 & 4 & 0 & 1 & 0 & + & – & + \\ Jaguar InControl & 3 & 3 & 1 & 2 & 0 & 2 & – & – & – \\ Land Rover InControl & 3 & 3 & 1 & 2 & 0 & 2 & – & – & – \\ Tesla & 0 & 2 & 1 & 2 & 0 & 0 & – & – & – \\ MyT & 0 & 1 & 2 & 1 & 0 & 1 & – & – & – \\ my Audi & 0 & 1 & 1 & 3 & 1 & 0 & – & – & + \\ My Bentley & 0 & 1 & 0 & 3 & 1 & 0 & – & – & – \\ Lamborghini Unica & 0 & 0 & 2 & 0 & 2 & – & – & + \\ Persche Connect & 0 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 2 & 0 & + & – & – \\ SEAT CONNECT & 3 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & – & – & – \\ MySKODA & 2 & 5 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 0 & – & – & – \\ SKODA Connect LITE & 0 & 3 & 1 & 0 & 2 & 0 & – & – & – \\ We Connect & 3 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 2 & – & – & – \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 7: Potentially vulnerable components in the manifest file of each app. perceived that six apps were potentially vulnerable to this issue, neglecting to set the right permissions in their manifest file. _Launch_ on the other hand, refers to the Launch mode, i.e., the _launchMode_ attribute in the -activity- manifest element, which determines how an activity should be launched. One app was found to specify a different Launch mode for the main activity, which should be launched with the \"default\" mode. Precisely, this app has set the launch mode to _singleTask/singleInstance_[98], meaning that it should be instantiated only once (singleton). Under the singleTask mode, the app can handle and control other activities, which have the standard configuration (singleTop activities).