No APK: Xiaomi wants to ban app file extraction on Android

The ability to install apps via APK files on Android is a great feature for developers and users, who can experience the functions easily and quickly, as it is possible to extract the APK file from an app and install it later. However, Xiaomi has set itself against this measure recently, and now they understand why.

A Xiaomi engineer has submitted a patch to AOSP that will add a SELinux policy that prevents a shell user from hijacking APK data files because they “may include some private resources.” 😬https://t.co/jnDRHIjEx7

– Mishaal Rahman May 20 2022

As pointed out by Mishaal Rahman, a Xiaomi engineer who submitted a proposal in the AOSP (Android Open Source Project), which is the basis of the Android system used by all manufacturers, for a system to block the extraction and sharing of APK files, such files. May contain “data from private sources”.

In this way, the Xiaomi developer basically wants the apps to be available for download only from official stores or authorized websites and apps distributed in system updates so that they are not shared among users.

On the other hand, Rahman points out that Google has no intention of adopting this policy, as it will be possible to bypass this ban easily through Android developer options, at least for the time being.

Hopefully, Xiaomi will not add its own limitations to MIUI, after all, its modified version of Android is known to have significant changes compared to the AOSP version.