Adversaries may abuse Android’s device administration API to obtain a higher degree of control over the device. By abusing the API, adversaries can perform several nefarious actions, such as resetting the device’s password for [Endpoint Denial of Service](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1642), factory resetting the device for [File Deletion](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1630/002) and to delete any traces of the malware, disabling all the device’s cameras, or to make it more difficult to uninstall the app. Device administrators must be approved by the user at runtime, with a system popup showing which actions have been requested by the app. In conjunction with other techniques, such as [Input Injection](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1516), an app can programmatically grant itself administrator permissions without any user input.
New mobile operating system versions bring not only patches against discovered vulnerabilities but also often bring security architecture improvements that provide resilience against potential vulnerabilities or weaknesses that have not yet been discovered. They may also bring improvements that block use of observed adversary techniques.
M1011User GuidanceDescribes any guidance or training given to users to set particular configuration settings or avoid specific potentially risky behaviors.
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