| commit | fd96970b78d045adbaf39e1dcfec2e200483d45c | [log] [tgz] |
|---|---|---|
| author | Hans-Christoph Steiner <hans@eds.org> | Tue Sep 19 19:21:31 2017 +0200 |
| committer | Hans-Christoph Steiner <hans@eds.org> | Tue Sep 19 19:36:36 2017 +0200 |
| tree | d3d2d6fd261ebdeb47616551b696b91d57de9863 | |
| parent | 85e4535f0ba57a6590371414960b46d3c330cc83 [diff] |
version code 2070 name 0.2.7
This enables F-Droid to install and delete apps without needing "Unknown Sources" to be enabled (e.g. just like Google Play does). It also enables F-Droid to install updates in the background without the user having to click "install".
When F-Droid is installed as a normal Android app, installing, updating, and removing apps can only be done by sending requests to Android operating system. F-Droid cannot execute these operations itself. Android shows a screen on every install/update/delete to confirm this is what the user actually wants. This is a security feature of Android to prevent apps or websites from installing malware without user intervention.
F-Droid Privileged Extension has elevated permissions which allow it to do installs and deletes. It gives only F-Droid access to its install and delete commands. In order for F-Droid Privileged Extension to get these "privileged" powers, it must be installed as part of your system by either being flashed as an update.zip or by being built into an Android device or ROM. On Android 4 and older, it can be installed directly if you have root on your device.
F-Droid Privileged Extension is designed on the principals of "least privilege", so that elevated powers are only granted where they are absolutely needed, and those powers are limited as much as possible. Therefore, the code that runs with increased powers is very small and easy to audit. This is in contrast to how typical built-in app stores are granted all of the privileges available to a "system priv-app".
Advantages of this design:
The best way to install F-Droid Privileged Extension is to flash the OTA update ZIP file using the standard mechanism for flashing updates to the ROM. This requires the device have an unlocked bootloader. A custom Recovery firmware is recommended. This is the same procedure as flashing "gapps" after flashing a ROM onto your device.
Installing the F-Droid Privileged Extension directly from the F-Droid app requires root access and is only possible on Android versions older than 5.0. It is not possible on Android 5.1, 6.0, and newer. To install the extension open the settings inside the F-Droid app, enable "Expert mode" and then enable "Privileged Extension". It will lead you to the extension app which will guide you through the installation process.
There are potential risks to rooting and unlocking your device, including:
F-Droid Privileged Extension is designed to be built into ROMs and signed by the ROM key. F-Droid only gets permissions via F-Droid Privileged Extension's internal key check, not via having a matching signing key or via "signature" protectionLevel. This git repo includes an Android.mk so it can be directly included via repo. Add FDroidPrivilegedExtension to the PRODUCT_PACKAGES list to include it in the system image, and use a repo manifest like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <manifest> <remote name="fdroid" fetch="https://gitlab.com/fdroid/" /> <project path="packages/apps/FDroidPrivilegedExtension" name="privileged-extension.git" remote="fdroid" revision="refs/tags/0.2" /> </manifest>
By default, F-Droid Privileged Extension trusts only the official F-Droid builds, and we recommend that https://f-droid.org/FDroid.apk is also included in the ROM. You can verify the binaries using both the APK signature and the PGP key: https://f-droid.org/FDroid.apk.asc
APK signing certificate SHA-256 fingerprint:
43238d512c1e5eb2d6569f4a3afbf5523418b82e0a3ed1552770abb9a9c9ccab
PGP signing key fingerprint is:
37D2 C987 89D8 3119 4839 4E3E 41E7 044E 1DBA 2E89
There is more documentation on this here: https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/Release_Channels_and_Signing_Keys
F-Droid Privileged Extension needs to be flashed as an OTA update on all Android versions since 5.0 in order to function. The official, signed ZIP package and PGP signature are available for download from f-droid.org:
It is also possible to download the bare APK, though this is not the recommended way to install it for this first time. It is provided to update the extension after the OTA update ZIP has been flashed.
Build a complete "update.zip" to flash to a device to install F-Droid and the Privileged Extension:
./gradlew assembleUpdateZipFromBinariesDebug
Build an "update.zip" to flash to a device to install just the Privileged Extension:
./gradlew assembleUpdateZipDebug
Build the standlone APK using:
./gradlew assembleRelease
In order to have final, signed release versions that are ready for installing, a release signing key must be set up in signing.properties with these contents:
key.store=/path/to/release-keystore.jks key.store.password=mysecurestorepw key.alias=release key.alias.password=mysecurekeypw
To test the priveleged extension in the emulator, one has to modify the system.img It is located under the Android SDK install path:
$ANDROID_HOME/system-images/android-23/google_apis/x86_64
for an API 23 (Marshmallow, 6.0) x86_64 image with Google APIs.
To install it, first build the standalone APK, and then run these in the above directory
mkdir system mount -o loop system.img system mkdir system/priv-app/FDroidPrivilegedExtension
Copy the standalone APK to the above created 'FDroidPrivilegedExtension' folder After that, you need to set the correct SELinux context using:
chcon -R --reference=app/webview system/priv-app/FDroidPrivilegedExtension
Upon booting the emulator it should have the PrivExt installed, and one can also install the F-Droid app this way, or via the normal methods.