Bypass PIE Security Check in Android L to Fix Apps Breakage Issue

There is a fix available for the PIE security check that is causing breakage in apps in Google's upcoming Android mobile operating system unveiled at the I/O conference, Android L.

PIE or Position-independent executables is a security feature, available in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean version or above. The PIE check in Android L Developer Preview causes breakage in the apps that shipped with native executables.

Google has temporarily disabled PIE check as some of the precompiled binaries shipped with Android are affected. However, it is unclear if Google will re-enable it.

But the Android L Developer Preview images that are available for Nexus 5 and Wi-Fi variant of Nexus 7 2013 were built before Google could bring the latest change and therefore the Developer Preview images still have PIE enabled.

Those who have installed the Android L Developer Preview version might have noticed that some of the native binaries no longer execute.

But Android users can now bypass the PIE check that creates the apps breakage issue in Android L. Senior XDA member cernekee has released a flashable file called bypass-pie.zip file, which brings a fix for the apps breaking issue.

PIE is a useful security feature, as randomizing the address space makes it significantly more difficult for an attacker to exploit bugs in a program. However, in this case, one must trade off compatibility for security: PIE is only available in JB 4.1 and above, so most app developers targeting a wide range of Android versions have disabled PIE in their builds. The new PIE check in "L" will cause breakage for most apps that ship native executables.

The developer also notes that the zip file has been tested on the Nexus 5 (hammerhead-lpv79-preview-ac1d8a8e.tgz). Below is the download link for the bypass-pie.zip file.

Download link: bypass-pie.zip

[Source: XDA]