Question

I have a content provider and a test application both signed with a debug key. The client receives a content normally if permissions are not applied, but I want to apply permissions to the stuff. So the following lines are added into the content provider’s manifest file:

  <permission android:name="org.example.provider.READ"
    android:permissionGroup="org.example.group.DATA_ACCESS"
    android:label="@string/readonlyaccess"
    android:protectionLevel="signature" />

  <application
    ...
    <provider android:name=".ImageContentProvider"
        android:authorities="org.example.provider"
        android:readPermission="org.example.provider.READ" />

In the client’s manifest file the following line is added:

<uses-permission android:name="org.example.provider.READ" />

When I try to get the data from the provider, I get the error:

09-13 22:38:20.995: E/AndroidRuntime(13979): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.example.hello/com.example.hello.HelloActivity}: java.lang.SecurityException: Permission Denial: reading org.example.ImageContentProvider uri content://org.example.provider/file from pid=13979, uid=10040 requires org.example.provider.READ

Am I missing something, or is it related to the fact that the applications are signed by debug key? How to solve the problem? I saw a suggestion to add uses-permission to the provider as well, but this does not help either. NB. This is checked inside emulator, if this can be of any importance.

I found a related question throws SecurityException when signing with the default debug keystore, but it does not provide actual solution.

Answer 1

Yes, it works with debug keystores, at least the last time I tried it.

I would have the <permission> element in both apps. If you installed the <uses-permission> one first, and then installed the <permission> one, you would run into problems. The permission needs to be defined before the <uses-permission> is encountered, and the simplest way to do that is to put the <permission> in both.