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Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

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Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#12

Post by marak830 »

TekMol wrote: post #4

This is interesting. I thought granting internet access to apps is not avoidable on Android. When an app does not request internet, is it really guaranteed that it cannot talk to the outside world? Or is it having other avenues like opening a browser or some other component with a custom url or something? Update: I just asked Gemini, and it does not look good: An Android app without the INTERNET permission is not gua…

Christ that's depressing.

I'm assuming that all works even with application sandboxing (1) or am I mis-reading how that is applied to applications.

Man I need to move my movement to GrapheneOS up to be sooner.

(1) https://source.android.com/docs/security/app-sandbox

Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#13

Post by nottorp »

TekMol wrote: post #4

This is interesting. I thought granting internet access to apps is not avoidable on Android. When an app does not request internet, is it really guaranteed that it cannot talk to the outside world? Or is it having other avenues like opening a browser or some other component with a custom url or something? Update: I just asked Gemini, and it does not look good: An Android app without the INTERNET permission is not gua…

You're aware that the only really secure computing device has no way to connect to a network and is under armed guard?

Edit: also that LLMs are tuned for "engagement" not for answers like "it's secure enough, move along"?

Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#14

Post by echoangle »

Chilinot wrote: post #5
vrighter wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would rendering a document need internet access?

PDFs can do all sorts of shenanigans, such as bundle executable javascript that runs when the file is opened.

You don’t need internet to run JS though. And the JS seems to be pretty sandboxed in normal viewers too, so a pdf file shouldn’t make network requests on its own. As long as there is no iframe-like content I don’t see how rendering a document would ever need network.

Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#18

Post by notpushkin »

est wrote: post #17

This is super cool. > Requirements: JDK 17+ and the Android SDK (platform 35). Bummer. I am stuck with Android 14 for the moment.

Which is also weird considering most of formats are just opened in a WebView with a respective JS-based viewer. Surely it can be backported?

Re: Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions

#20

Post by csande17 »

marak830 wrote: post #12
TekMol wrote: post #4

This is interesting. I thought granting internet access to apps is not avoidable on Android. When an app does not request internet, is it really guaranteed that it cannot talk to the outside world? Or is it having other avenues like opening a browser or some other component with a custom url or something? Update: I just asked Gemini, and it does not look good: An Android app without the INTERNET permission is not gua…

Christ that's depressing. I'm assuming that all works even with application sandboxing (1) or am I mis-reading how that is applied to applications. Man I need to move my movement to GrapheneOS up to be sooner. (1) https://source.android.com/docs/security/app-sandbox

Yeah, Android's sandbox deals with low-level file access and socket APIs and stuff. But Android also, intentionally, allows apps to expose their data and functionality to other apps via the higher-level "intent" system.

Apps get to choose what permissions are needed to access their intents, so under Android's security model, really it's Chrome's fault (or whatever browser the user has installed) for exposing an intent that allows apps that don't have the INTERNET permission to exfoltrate data.

Similarly, apps are also allowed to collude to share data with each other if they want; that's how stuff like Google Play Services works.

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