Hi,
I was thinking the other day about apps which request more permissions than they should need.
Let's say I download an app, such as a photo editor and that app rightfully needs permission for Storage access. But what if I did not trust the developer of the application and I wanted to ensure it didn’t start to go ahead and read/write files which I did not want it to have access to?
I can find modules and apps to control permissions, but they are just on/off toggles, not more granular. Is there anything I can use to force it to only have read/write access to certain files/folders instead of an all or nothing storage / no storage permission?
The only thing I could find that looks similar to what I am trying to do, is an Xposed module called XinternalSD, but I could not get it working for the above scenario. It looked like I might be able to make apps see the internal sd card as being a subfolder, but it didn’t seem to work out this way when I tried.
I still haven't been able to find anything that can do this. Does anyone have any ideas?
Related
Im a bit of a noob when it comes to Android.
im more a windows mobile person however....
For xmas i recieved an android tablet which is an awesome toy! but ive had issues with making the widgets work on the home screen - they dont show up.
Ive read forums and forums all day and each forum points back to xda:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=780828&page=13
Looks great, downloaded the apk tried to copy it to the system/app folder but it wont let me do it.
Ive managed to confuse myself after hours of reading so hoping someone can give me some ideas.
Ive read about needing the device 'rooted' i still dont understand what this is n how i do it.
Ive also read the file is to be pushed into the folder??
Ive downloaded the terminal emulator, file explorer etc... tried copy/paste, move, cut etc... all with the same answer of insufficent access.
The terminal emulator on the other hand i cannot use as its all touch screen with no hard buttons once running i cannot type into the program.
surely theres an easier way to load things into the system folders?
Sorry if its the wrong section or what seems a simple ask for some direction, I'm used to windows mobile and htc sence modding where you can just delete and replace files at will
Hey,
Root is like the administrator in Windows. By default, you have a user account, not a root or admin account. And therefore you're access permissions are limited. You do not have write permissions to most internal directories and are pretty much limited to the sd card, which is kinda like 'home' in linux or 'my documents' in windows. Also, cannot run applications that require su (superuser, ie: root, admin).
Rooting is the act of accessing the root user account, or admin account. Like 'jail-breaking' in the apple world.
How to root your android depends on which model you have.
For installing the widget app, as long as its an .apk file, you should be able to just click on it and be prompted to install it.
To access your widgets, should be able to log press on a blank area of the home screen and get a option box to select from. Or if you have a 'menu' button there should be an add option.
To use the Terminal, long press 'menu' and your keyboard will popup. Or click menu and there will be an option for the keyboard, also settings to change color, text size and others.
Sent from my ERIS using XDA App
Also, in the terminal, it will use linux commands, not windows commands.
You can google android commands and get a list of common commands.
Good luck. Have fun. If you don't have some linux experience, it may seem like there's a steep learning curve, but most things will become easy after a little tinkering.
Sent from my ERIS using XDA App
im finding this an incredibly steep curve - a bit too steep lol
I would recommend searching <(name of device) root guide> and then you will find your way around.
But, i don't think you need root, root is for when you need to install applications that you need higher permissions to control system settings. Also to install different versions of android.
Your problem seems to be only a bug. If you want to install an application that is not on the market, you just go to your settings and turn on installing from unknown sources.
You don't need to put it in system apps, the apk is like an .exe, just put it on your sd card, install a file manager program like ASTRO, and then open that app, go to the directory you transfered the file, and click it, ASTRO will give you the ability to install it.
patriotaus said:
I would recommend searching <(name of device) root guide> and then you will find your way around.
But, i don't think you need root, root is for when you need to install applications that you need higher permissions to control system settings. Also to install different versions of android.
Your problem seems to be only a bug. If you want to install an application that is not on the market, you just go to your settings and turn on installing from unknown sources.
You don't need to put it in system apps, the apk is like an .exe, just put it on your sd card, install a file manager program like ASTRO, and then open that app, go to the directory you transfered the file, and click it, ASTRO will give you the ability to install it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont think rooting is essential to do this but from what ive read - it helps.
the app in question is this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=780828
this should replace the file on my system which doesnt work. unless anyone has a suggestion to get the same item by installing an apk to achieve as per the instructions state "copy into system/app and set permissions"
Hi there,
I downloaded SSE and used it.
I want to know is there anything better than this? I want to install the best one.
Thanks
I like EDS a lot. You can open truecrypt containers you make on the PC with it (must use specific encryption etc...). If you have root you can also mount the volume directly on the device.
Most of these types of programs (that don't mount) cache up a part of, or all of the file locally so you can access it meaning there is an unsecured copy on the devices file system while you access it. With mount you open directly from inside the encrypted container bypassing that insecurity.
I think you have to have the pay version to mount, this is the free one:
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=eds
Also it will leave a notification in your notification area saying EDS is loaded but you can hide that by going to the app in settings -> apps and unticking the show notifications checkbox.
So recently, I was searching for a news app that needs few permissions as possible.
I found an app called Flipboard. Google play said I need to allow the following:
Identity
Photos/Media/Files
I was satisfied with those permissions and installed the app. Then I went to Privacy Guard (I have CM installed) to check if the permissions match. The permissions not only not match but there are additional that I would never allow, like reading my SMS or Read Calendar information.
Another strange thing is, that on the google play web page there is another set of permissions:
This app has access to: Identity
find accounts on the device
Photos/Media/Files
test access to protected storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Other
receive data from Internet
full network access
prevent device from sleeping
view network connections
I know there can be additional permissions added with updates, but I never updated the app.
To me it seems google/apps are misleading users and it seems very illegal to me.
Am I missing something here or is my complain justified?
See screenshots at http://android.stackexchange.com where I also asked the question.
Regards
Im afraid that there are no "fair game" in "free app" ... especially for huge company that move on by profit ...
we may cant blame them either ...
just download or not ...
do you mean this apps:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flipboard.app&hl=en
When i try to install, it only appear:
Identity:
find accounts on the device (i need to click to expand arrow to see this line)
Photos/Media/Files:
(i need to click to expand arrow to see this line)
test access to protected storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
I must click to "view detail permission" to see all the required permission. So maybe it require these permission in the first place but it a little tricky hide itself so you missed it.
nbtthief said:
do you mean this apps:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=flipboard.app&hl=en
When i try to install, it only appear:
Identity:
find accounts on the device (i need to click to expand arrow to see this line)
Photos/Media/Files:
(i need to click to expand arrow to see this line)
test access to protected storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
I must click to "view detail permission" to see all the required permission. So maybe it require these permission in the first place but it a little tricky hide itself so you missed it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I click "view detail permission", I see exactly the same info as on google play web page, but additional permissions like reading my SMS or Read Calendar information is still not there. To be honest I feel I'm being lied to...
Hello,
I was searching about a feature to limit the access of apps to certain files or directories.
Use Case: I may have a directory I store music and do not want to share this with (amazon music, ....)
I may have a directory where I store pictures which should not be seen by other applications.
Today I use a of the shelf Samsung A3 2016 Android 7.0, but I used Xposed, CM and rooted devices. in the past. I'm not registered as developer here did never codded Android app or kernel but developed on embedded Devices and Linux in the past. I would be happy if you could share a ready to use setting, app or development idea (even if you did not got it running).
What I investigated and did not work so far:
Option A - .nomedia
I know already there is a possibility to use .nomedia file in the directory to avoid pictures being shown in Gallery, BUT this is a feature of the Gallery app (as far as I see). So the developer of the Gallery app could also access to the pictures in the directories, if they would like. So I'm not happy with this.
Option B - using cryptography
So I could simply put the sensitive data into a container, there are apps out e.g. EDS.
But I found out if the application who should access the data is not providing a "path" where the data is stored or doesn't provide an interface to a cryptography it can not be used. And once I entered the password and the directory is mounted all the applications running are able to access the files.
Option C - restrict media access
The Android allows to restrict the access to media, so I simply could switch off the access in the app I do not want to allow. But this doesn't work if the app need to store data. Android Music should be able to store the music on the phone but should not be allowed to access the other directories on my SD.
In pure Linux it would be quite easy you can use different users and access to files.
But Xposed may provide a solution as I could filter requests to the file system, but is there a example out there.
Thank you for reading all the stuff
I'm looking forward to read about your ideas
gonso
Hello,
no one has an idea or solution? I'm not able to post in the developers section may be one of you
may move the post into the Development part.
If not existing yet I would try to find out how to develop
Regards
gonso
Hey guys, this is my first thread, and I'm a bit confused on the app. Today I'll tell how did I stop the freaking google 'malware' from installing and updating every single day. This would work on any rooted device that has access to the data partition, maybe it could be reproduced via adb without root.
First off, I searched everywhere looking on how to disable, uninstall, break, or do anything to this forced battery hog. The best answers were using 'pm hide' on the package but this caused a very high battery usage, due to the file dependencies. So I searched where it was installed. Luckily enough, it is an user app, so it means I would find it on /data/app and /data/data. I will use solid explorer, but any file manager with root access and chmod to change permissions should do just fine.
Once we locate the folder (/data/app/com.google.android.instantapps.supervisor-1 in my case) we delete it. Utterly. After that, we will create a file, and name it exactly the same as the folder did. This is a dummy file that the system will believe it is a folder, and will try to install the application inside it. We fill that file with enough random characters for making the system think it can't just delete it (sometimes cleaners point empty files as worthless and wipe them out)
Now we need to make the dummy file unremovable for anyone but us, by using chmod. Solid explorer has a nice interface for that. We long press the file, enter to properties and set the permission to 0 0 0 (attributes tab). This makes play store unable to delete the file to recover the old folder, and when it tries to download the package, it will fail because it won't have a respective folder to be sent to.
After this, we reboot the phone and see that google play services for instant apps has lost roughly 90% of it's size, and when we enter settings>google>google play instant it'll ask for installation. I was bold enough to accept, just for getting an error dialogue when it tried to install itself.
Known issue: The app reinstalls once again after reboot. The cause is that, when android can't install the app in the first folder (the one that ends with a -1), it can create a second one (ending with a -2 instead), like an alternative. This is solved by just doing the same procedure above on the second folder, and you will end up having two dummy files instead of one. A third folder cannot show up, or at least it didn't in my phone.
Notes: You can repeat this with the folder in /data/data and any other data partition level instant app folder, but I wouldn't do it because I already broke all functionality since I deleted the base apk, and the app size is less than 300KB now so I don't think the trouble is worth it.
You must whitelist these files from any memory cleaner, i.e SD maid corpse finder will delete it thinking it's a leftover of an old app
WARNING; I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MISLEADS, WRONGS, OR PLUTONIUM-UNSTABLE ROMS THAT MAY EXPLODE IN ANY WAY. YOU ARE THE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR DEVICE'S SAFETY AS THIS ISN'T EVEN FULLY TESTED IN MY PHONE AND I DON'T KNOW THE ULTIMATE CONSEQUENCES OF DOING THIS. YOU ARE WARNED.
PD: Please make some suggestions about how I made the thread, I did what I think it's my best