Digital Surveillance in Your Pocket: Audit Uncovers Tracking and Weak Cryptography in 11 Top Russian Android Apps
An independent security researcher conducted a static analysis and passive logcat review of 11 popular Russian Android applications from banks, government services, marketplaces, and navigation tools. The audit identified 237 vulnerabilities in total, including six apps signed with outdated RSA-1024 or DSA-1024 keys that violate current NIST standards. VK led the risk ranking with 11 trackers and a 98/100 surveillance score, while Gosuslugi transmitted analytics signals to VK, Yandex, Google, and Huawei ecosystems. Five apps used WebRTC ICE candidate leaks to detect VPN usage, potentially bypassing user privacy protections. Only Goskluch scored low at 42.4/100 by limiting trackers to two, avoiding VPN detection, and using a compliant RSA-2048 signing key. The methodology relied solely on MobSF, jadx, and logcat without bypassing SSL pinning or requiring root access.
HabrSep 12, 2026Translated from Russian