Netguard - no hosts blocking available

[Licaon_Kter]

@M66B I’m trying some XDA ROMs for an older device, and I usually install Netguard first

But on this latest one tested (Android 14 maybe AOSP based, no GMS) it appears that the Netguard 2.328 (2024022201) from F-Droid always detects that it was installed from “Play” and disables hosts blocking.

Eg. even forced manually:

$ adb push netguard.apk /data/local/tmp && adb shell pm install -i "org.fdroid.fdroid" -r /data/local/tmp/netguard.apk
Success
$ adb shell pm list packages -i | grep netguard
package:eu.faircode.netguard  installer=org.fdroid.fdroid
$ adb shell logcat -v threadtime | grep Play
I NetGuard.Settings: Play store install

How can I check what (else?) exactly triggers this erroneous detection?

[SkewedZeppelin]

install source can show differently depending on requestor

it is possible the system spoofs the response to all apps as if from play

[Licaon_Kter]

Yeah, surely is a ROM issue, wondered if I can check this somehow.

[SkewedZeppelin]

eg.

DivestOS: DivestOS-Build/Patches/LineageOS-20.0/android_frameworks_base/0036-Unprivileged_microG_Handling.patch at master · Divested-Mobile/DivestOS-Build · GitHub

CalyxOS: Set FakeStore as Aurora Store installer package name (6e47be1b) · Commits · CalyxOS / platform_frameworks_base · GitLab

iodeOS:

• unbound: All packages installed via Google Play Store (628a00e8) · Commits · iode / os / public / lineage / frameworks_base · GitLab < quite a few xda style systems include this one
• later scoped: Only spoof packages installed by Aurora Store and modify new API (f1862097) · Commits · iode / os / public / lineage / frameworks_base · GitLab

[M66B]

    public static boolean isPlayStoreInstall(Context context) {
        if (BuildConfig.PLAY_STORE_RELEASE)
            return true;
        try {
            return "com.android.vending".equals(context.getPackageManager().getInstallerPackageName(context.getPackageName()));
        } catch (Throwable ex) {
            Log.e(TAG, ex.toString() + "\n" + Log.getStackTraceString(ex));
            return false;
        }
    }

Either it is a Play Store build as determined by build.gradle or the installer package was the Play Store app.

[Licaon_Kter]

Either it is a Play Store build as determined by build.gradle

reading metadata/eu.faircode.netguard.yml · master · F-Droid / Data · GitLab and looking at NetGuard/app/build.gradle at 2.328 · M66B/NetGuard · GitHub tells me that’s not the issue (also, hosts blocking is enabled just fine on other ROMs hence a ROM issue)

@M66B

or the installer package was the Play Store app.

yeah, this is the issue, the ROM is lying and saying from Play

[Licaon_Kter]

@SkewedZeppelin thanks for the info

now I wonder how this would impact autoupdates and if apps installed by F-Droid would be deemed to be installed ONLY by F-Droid, as the new Android 12-14 settings say.

ref: Maintaining ownership | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

ref: Request update ownership for newly installed apps (!1370) · Merge requests · F-Droid / Client · GitLab