android dumpsys permission denial

Question

I have an application where I create a process and call the dumpsys telephony.registry command to get information about the mobile network status.

String[] cmds={"dumpsys telephony.registry"};
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmds [0]+"\n");

and then after that I parse the result of the command. For "ls" or other commands it works fine. For dupmsys I get Permission Denial: can't dump telephony.registry from pid-953, uid=10090. I get the same error results for dumpsys power or other dumpsys commands.

I have set DUMP permissions android.permission.DUMP in the android Manifest like suggested here

I think that I am doing this right since Android offers this feature here

I have also done the step described here to force eclipse to allow me to give my application DUMP permission in the manifest.

When I execute the dumpsys command I always get the same result

Permission Denial: can't dump telephony.registry from pid-953, uid=10090

Am I doing something wrong? Why does android OS still deny me access to the dump service ?

PS I have set min API 8 and I am testing the application on device running (ICS) API 15

Answer 1

Why does android OS still deny me access to the dump service ?

Because that permission is flagged as android:protectionLevel="signature|system|development" (or signatureOrSystem using the old syntax) on Android 2.3+, and therefore cannot be held by ordinary Android SDK applications.

Answer 2

There's another (hacky) way to access dumpsys without rooting your device - through adb shell.

This will require allowing USB debugging, and finding the port of the adb service.

1. Enable USB debugging on your device. This option is found under Settings -> Developer Options.

2. Connect your device to a PC, and run the following command from the PC's shell/command line: adb tcpip 12345. Then, from your devices shell, issue the command adb connect localhost:12345 from your application. You can now disconnect the device from USB. Alternatively, you can scan the ports on your device one by one without USB connection, using adb connect localhost:<portnum> and find the port adb service is listening to.

3. Authorize USB debugging from the pop up confirmation dialog, if prompted. Check the "always" checkbox to do not require this step again.

4. Now, when you have access to the adb service, use adb shell dumpsys ... from your application code to get whatever service dump you need.

NOTE: You don't need the DUMP permission for that to work.

Answer 3

The android dev team decided to stop granting these permissions to third-party apps. Only system apps can now get them.

more details:https://code.google.com/p/acra/issues/detail?id=100

Answer 4

It reports private values of core Android services that you would never be able to typically obtain. Official document says "Not for use by third-party applications".

Answer 5

Add permission on your manifest "android.permission.DUMP". I have not tried it yet but it shows on adb shell that it is missing that permission