Beyond OS Trust Stores: TLS Trust in Russia’s Android Ecosystem
Authors: William J. Tolley (Hampden-Sydney College), Everett Morse (Hampden-Sydney College), Jedidiah R. Crandall (Arizona State University)
Year: 2026
Issue: 2
Pages: 12–20
Abstract: This paper presents a measurement study of trust-anchor distribution in the Russian Android ecosystem. We analyze applications distributed through RuStore, a domestic marketplace promoted in Russia after the 2022 sanctions, in order to examine how APKs bundle certificate material and related trust-configuration artifacts independently of the operating system trust store. Our analysis combines ecosystem-wide measurement with a weighted top-application view to study how application packaging and software supply chains can expand the effective trust boundary of TLS. We discuss the implications for mobile trust, software supply chains, and the assumption that TLS remains a sufficient fallback against hostile networks.
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