Google develops MicroDroid, a stripped-down version of Android for virtual machines

XDA Developers said that Google is developing a stripped-down version of Android for virtual machines, called MicroDroid. The report pointed out that according to the commit submitted by Google to AOSP, MicroDroid is called "a minimal Android-based Linux image" by Google and will be used in virtual machines.

Google mentioned in the commit that they did not choose to develop a brand new Linux image from scratch, but designed MicroDroid as a streamlined version of the Generic System Image (GSI).

A Generic System Image (GSI) is a pure Android implementation that uses unmodified Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code and runs on a wide range of Android devices.

Therefore, MicroDroid is essentially still an Android system, but it will be stripped down to the smallest executable version. XDA believes that this project will help realize the implementation of a stripped-down version of Android running on top of a hypervisor, which will then be used to virtualize a single Android application, eliminating the need to provide a complete auxiliary desktop environment.

According to XDA's analysis, MicroDroid is likely to be used by Google to improve the security of Android hardware devices. LWN has reported that Google introduced the Linux Kernel Virtualization Mechanism named "KVM" to Android devices using ARM64 SoC, but this operation caused system-level permissions to be abnormal, and third-party codes such as DRM and encryption would have the same level as the Android system and run in the virtual machine.

If MicroDroid is used, it can communicate with the underlying Android host through its minimum executable components (such as init and binder services), thus achieving isolation from the main system. Therefore, third-party applications with high permissions can be run separately on MicroDroid, thereby improving security.

It is understood that this project may need to be used in conjunction with the new Type-1 Hypervisor component in Snapdragon 888. In other words, future upgraded versions of Android phones equipped with Snapdragon 888 will have a safer application isolation function than before, and the isolated applications will not reduce system performance.

This article is reproduced from OSCHINA

Title of this article: Google develops MicroDroid, a streamlined version of Android for virtual machines

Article URL: https://www.oschina.net/news/128235/google-microdroid-for-android-vm