The super app paradigm, exemplified by platforms such as WeChat and AliPay, has revolutionized the mobile app landscape by enabling third-party developers to deploy add-ons within these apps. These add-ons, known as miniapps, leverage user data hosted by the super app platforms to provide a wide range of services, such as shopping and gaming. With the rise of miniapps, super apps have transformed into "operating systems", offering encapsulated APIs to miniapp developers as well as in-app miniapp stores for users to explore and download miniapps. In this paper, we provide the first systematic study to consolidate the current state of knowledge in this field from the security perspective: the security measures, threats, and trade-offs of this paradigm. Specifically, we summarize 13 security mechanisms and 10 security threats in super app platforms, followed by a root cause analysis revealing that the security assumptions still may be violated due to issues in underlying systems, implementation of isolation, and vetting. Additionally, we also systematize open problems and trade-offs that need to be addressed by future works to help enhance the security and privacy of this new paradigm.

翻译：超级应用范式（以微信和支付宝等平台为例）通过允许第三方开发者在其内部部署附加组件，革新了移动应用格局。这些被称为小程序的附加组件，利用超级应用平台托管的用户数据，提供购物、游戏等多种服务。随着小程序的兴起，超级应用已转型为"操作系统"，向小程序开发者提供封装的API，并为用户提供应用内小程序商店以供探索和下载。本文首次从安全视角系统性地整合该领域现有知识：包括该范式的安全措施、威胁与权衡。具体而言，我们总结了超级应用平台的13种安全机制与10种安全威胁，并通过根因分析揭示：由于底层系统问题、隔离机制实现缺陷及审查机制漏洞，安全假设仍可能被破坏。此外，我们还系统梳理了需由未来工作解决的开放问题与权衡，以增强这一新兴范式的安全性与隐私保护。