What is the difference between system apps and privileged apps on Android?

by

So after some digging, it’s clear that apps in priv-app are eligible for system permissions, the same way that old apps used to be eligible to claim system permissions by being in system-app. The only official Google documentation I could find on this came in the form of a commit message:
Commit hash: ccbf84f44c9e6a5ed3c08673614826bb237afc54

Some system apps are more system than others

“signatureOrSystem” permissions are no longer available to all apps
residing en the /system partition. Instead, there is a new
/system/priv-app directory, and only apps whose APKs are in that
directory are allowed to use signatureOrSystem permissions without
sharing the platform cert. This will reduce the surface area for
possible exploits of system- bundled applications to try to gain
access to permission-guarded operations.

The ApplicationInfo.FLAG_SYSTEM flag continues to mean what it is says
in the documentation: it indicates that the application apk was
bundled on the /system partition. A new hidden flag FLAG_PRIVILEGED
has been introduced that reflects the actual right to access these
permissions.

Update: As of Android 8.0 priv-app has changed slightly with the addition of Privileged Permission Whitelisting. Beyond just being in priv-app, your app must also be added to a whitelist in order to gain various system permissions. Information on this can be found here: https://source.android.com/devices/tech/config/perms-whitelist

More Related Contents:

  1. Debug android through adb without allow it
  2. What does @hide mean in the Android source code?
  3. Where is android.os.SystemProperties?
  4. How do I build the Android SDK with hidden and internal APIs available?
  5. Where can I find Android source code online? [closed]
  6. How to compile the Android AOSP kernel and test it with the Android Emulator?
  7. Source of Android’s lock screen [closed]
  8. How do I add APKs in an AOSP build?
  9. Error adding prebuilt apk with shared libraries to AOSP
  10. Application crashes at the startup. [closed]
  11. Retrofit Not building url as expected Android
  12. How can I get zoom functionality for images?
  13. Application Skeleton to support multiple screens
  14. What is the difference between compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion?
  15. Get content uri from file path in android
  16. no changes to deploy android studio 2.1
  17. How do I place fragment arrylist ScrollableTabsActivity?
  18. How do I download the Android SDK without downloading Android Studio?
  19. LinkedList put into Intent extra gets recast to ArrayList when retrieving in next activity
  20. Checking internet connection on android
  21. What file system path is used by Android’s Context.openFileOutput()?
  22. How to save Image in shared preference in Android | Shared preference issue in Android with Image
  23. CardView not showing Shadow in Android L
  24. AVD Manager – Cannot Create Android Virtual Device
  25. Sending a File using Bluetooth OBEX Object Push Profile (OPP)
  26. android screen orientation
  27. Can I access to resources from different locale android?
  28. How to stop the handler?
  29. How to support all the different resolutions of android products
  30. Android SlidingTabLayout with icons

Leave a Comment