MSA advertisment

Vecernik

Hello,
i have unrooted global stable rom (7.1.2.0 KXDMICK) and for last few days, several advertisment notifications appeared on my Mi4. As i cant read chinese, i have no idea what it is about. Origin of these notifications is "MSA" app which i did not installed and it seems to be system app because i cant uninstall it.
According to suggestions on forum, I force-stopped that and uninstalled all updates. Now it says the name is "SystemAd" which confirms it has something to do with advertisment.
Now my question are:
What the hell is doing an chinese advertisement program on global rom?
Is that some sort of misbehaving spyware?
And also - how to get rid of it permanently when its part of the ROM?

Until now I was happy with my phone but this is totally unacceptable.

Vecernik

Thanks for response.
1) This app data folder is named "com.miui.systemAdSolution" I believe it is not a coincidence.
2) this app IS included in the rom which i got from your link: cancro_global ( http://update.miui.com/updates/v1/fullromdownload.php?d=cancro_global&b=F&r=global&n= ). I downloaded this file, unpacked "system.img" and found  "app/SystemAdSolution.apk" . Therefore reinstalling clean ROM is not going to help because app will stay there.

As a software developer I fully understand that there can appear some unexpected issues. However all of them must be adressed and solved in the best possible way.
Please, talk to your coworkers about this as I am not only one - i found another user just few days ago affected by the same app: http://en.miui.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=292743 (different device, miui global stable)
This seems to be large-scale issue and it should be investigated more.

edit: i checked file "classes.dex" from the SystemAdSolution.apk which is included in the latest cancro_global ROM and i found these URL which are used to download advertisment:
http://api.ad.xiaomi.com/fetchAd
http://api.ad.xiaomi.com/getSplashScreenAds
http://api.ad.xiaomi.com/push/getAds
... I believe this does not need any comments.

Ringosham

These 2 applications exist on all Xiaomi devices on ANY Global Miui ROM(I don't know if this applies in China ROM). (I have a Redmi note upgrading from miui 5 to miui 7 and a Xiaomi note upgrading from miui 6 to miui 8. All contain these applications.)
The developers frequently push updates to SystemAdSolution(msa) and forces your phone to update itself silently(Through WiFi and mobile data). People having limited data would suffer from this heavily.
One of the worst thing they have done to my phone is to put a prize counter for China of the Olympics in the stock clock widget(They did give me the option to remove it, but it's ridiculous)! It is ridiculous that the first thing to do on a brand new phone is to root it to block its system advertisements!
Because of applications are system apps, they cannot be removed without root. Freezing is disabled in the application list.

asshwljh

Friends simply remove this garbage :

1 MSA.apk --- SystemAdSolution.apk    It is the same

2 Analytics

Advertising will no longer come to you.
It is also better to get rid of the stock browser in it can be built advertising.

alebertaz

Hi, meanwhile for no root users we can install "Noroot firewall" from play store and keep always on. Remember to disable MIUI energy saver for this app.

Vecernik

Hi,
it is simple:
1) download https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.szalkowski.activitylauncher&hl=en . That is official distribution of Activity Launcher (Trahin linked upload of this app on this forum, but I generally do not trust unofficial sources)
2) run the app.
3) on top (black) menu you should see button with text "recent activities". Tap that and switch it to "all activities"
4) wait till list loads and then scroll to "settings" entry. Tap that one.
5) scroll to "Notification log" (there should be gray text "com.android.settings.Settings$NotificationStationActivity")
6) tap that one and it should display you similar screen you see in my previous post

trahin

Yes we did it but the problem is for non-root users

3laa_Alden

Analytics used over 500mb this month on latest global MIUi 8.0.5.0 Redmi note 3 .. that is unacceptable

Vecernik

sss2sssss replied at 2016-7-13 22:44
Bro I believe what you talk about, since today I also got receive some sudden pop up ads when I br ...

Hi, SystemAdSolution should not cause any popups. Only Notifications. Your description seems to be caused by another issue.
2 ALL:
Anyway, I noticed that recently, there was published security flaw in MIUI Analytics package: https://securityintelligence.com/remote-code-execution-in-xiaomi-miui-analytics/
I am sure this MSA / SystemAdSolution has the same vulnerability because update URL use simple not-secured HTTP protocol: http://api.ad.xiaomi.com/brand/appupgrade
Therefore Xiaomi is not just distributing advertisement among all Global users (the app is included in every ROM, proof can be found in previous post). But also Xiaomi can be hacked due to insecured communication of this app!
Good Job Xiaomi. Any phone now can be hacked by using fake DNS and MitM attack, thanks to your SystemAdSolution.

xHatreD

Hi, i have been using Redmi 1s & Redmi Note 3 Pro, and from both, i didn't find any SystemAdSolution.apk but i did find msa.apk. I can clarify that there are no Ads in Global Stable ROM. I think you should follow Reply #2 for solution. Report back if this fixes your issue.

Nig_ZA

You can fastboot flash to restore the system files to stock. There is no advertising inthe stock global ROM http://en.miui.com/a-234.html

Backup first!

egold70

Vecernik replied at 2016-6-16 15:36
Thanks for response.
1) This app data folder is named "com.miui.systemAdSolution" I believe it is no ...

Indeed this is unacceptable!
Didn't know what is msa but noticed it`s always active in previous roms, never seen system ads thou except some strange suggestions in browser
I was actually able to remove it but not in official stable

Vecernik

As everyone can see, I proved that Xiaomi distribute Advertisement app inside their global stable ROM. Everyone can verify that because I published all filenames which cause this issue. This topic is still open because issue (displaying advertisement by systemAdSolution was NOT SOLVED.
Please remove stamp "solved" ASAP and suggest correct solution otherwise I will collect all evidence and give it to several international Tech Magazines. Believe me - it would be not a good for Xiaomi, if the entire world talk about unwanted apps in Xiaomi ROM.

Edit: Hello, its me again. For several days, no advertisement has shown so I thought Xiaomi did their homework and they will not distribute advertisement to Global Stable ROM again.
Well, it appears i was wrong. Xiaomi still show advertisement in Global Stable ROM. I know that nobody from the team cared about this topic before (except that little denial) so this time I took all necesary screenshots (please find them in attachment).

Is there any other option to contact customer-care team or directly developers who can check this issue? I believe publishing in international tech magazines should be the last option. (because in that case, PR will have to react to that)

Mod Edit: please, use the Edit option instead of creating multiple posts, thank you for your future cooperation!

ajroxx16

Analytics and MSA . Why are they included in this ROM.  Today MSA was utilizing wifi bandwidth  so i noticed. Servers are aws so no one knows what's going on, they are either leeching data or LEECHING DATA. For now i've disabled it.    Are you on rooted device ???? I AM..!  and it is concerning me now !!
Browser Patch is being downloaded in background :/   

Mod Edit: please, use the Edit option instead of creating multiple posts, thank you for your future cooperation!

Vecernik

Hey, its me again, Last time before contacting XDA and other tech magazines to make this public...
I know Xiaomi developers have been busy but I believe there should be some explanation, about advertisment in Global Stable ROM. Over last few weeks i got another ads from Xiaomi.
If you did not read previous messages I just want to remind that only response from Xiaomi team was "we do not distribute ads in global stable" which is clearly not true as the app "SystemAdSolution.apk" (which is responsible for these ads) was found in clean ROM downloaded directly from Xiaomi.

Vecernik

Why are you ignoring the fact, i gave you exact path to systemAdSolution.apk which i found in ROM directly downloaded from miui? Anyway, msa and SystemAdSolution is the same app.
If you did not find it there are only two possibilities:
1) your redmi rom is different
2) you were not looking correctly.
if you download cancro ROM (for exaple newest: http://bigota.d.miui.com/V7.5.1.0.MXDMIDE/miui_MI3WMI4WGlobal_V7.5.1.0.MXDMIDE_2770e971bd_6.0.zip )
Unpack the zip and go to folder: System/App/SystemAdSolution .


I am extremely annoyed by people who clearly lie to me (not sure if lack of knowledge or intentionaly). You can see here proof, that Xiaomi distribute advertisement app into global stable rom including the latest 7.5 version. Do not tell me they dont do that because you can verify it yourself i am saying truth.
Question is not "is installing clean rom going to help?" or "why is it happening?".
Correct question is "Why is this app in the rom?"

edit: in this newest version, xiaomi changed the app a bit so URL with API for advertisement is no longer inside of APK file. Instead, they put these links into systemAdSolution.odex. Proof is here and you can verify it by yourself on any downloaded ROM:

sss2sssss

Vecernik replied at 2016-7-12 20:00
Why are you ignoring the fact, i gave you exact path to systemAdSolution.apk which i found in ROM di ...

Bro I believe what you talk about, since today I also got receive some sudden pop up ads when I browsing from chrome