Network Permissions Query

suson

I'm a new user to Graphene OS, so far I really love it and I think it's great.

I've been looking through some of the settings and going into the nuances to try and learn more and stay in control of the permissions that each app uses. Everything works as expected until I go to Network. There are a lot more permissions where there seems to be a lot more apps that are using network connectivity that I don't' recognise. These all have a Android logo and say things like:

Add Privacy Android Services Library
.com.android.federated
compute.services
.com.android.inserviceentitlement
.com.android.com.android
.com.android.Intent filter verification services
location network manager
OSU login
pack processor
Print service recommendation
proxy handler
remote provisioner
shell

My question is if these are normal processes. The reason I ask is because I've been using F-Droid and Aurora to download apps. Recently I also downloaded Jack Dorsey's Bitchat from the Play Store and apparently it is not a legitimate version. I was wondering if these services are standard and to be expected, or if it could be something that could be nefarious?

Thanks in advance,

Suson

Dumdum

suson
These are system processes/components. It is not recommended to modify or remove system processes.

tac

suson These are system apps. To even see them, you have to select Show system apps as an additional option. They are all part of GrapheneOS.

The network connections made by GrapheneOS are extensively well-documented at https://grapheneos.org/faq#default-connections. Executive summary: GrapheneOS does not make any unnecessary network connections.

It's neither necessary nor a good idea to revoke network access from any of them, besides maybe the Intent Verification Service if you are so inclined – but there's a caveat, so read this first: https://grapheneos.org/usage#app-link-verification

Watermelon

suson My question is if these are normal processes

These are system apps that are part of GrapheneOS/Android. Don't touch their permissions, they could break.

suson Recently I also downloaded Jack Dorsey's Bitchat from the Play Store and apparently it is not a legitimate version. I was wondering if these services are standard and to be expected, or if it could be something that could be nefarious?

Installation of apps on Android is a privileged operation. Android doesn't have any equivalent to Administrator/root from desktop operating systems. Everything is sandboxed, both user-installed apps and system components. The component in Android that deals with installation of apps is called PackageInstaller and the package management system. Android apps can request this component to install a new APK they want to install — for new apps (rather than an updated version of an existing app) this would always pop up a small window asking for your approval to install the app. Since everything is sandboxed, apps cannot themselves install new apps, they must request it from PackageInstaller/the package management system, which would ask for your approval. Even then, only apps that you've granted the Install unknown apps permission to can bring up this approval window, otherwise the APK installation is blocked. You can change this permission in Settings app > Apps > Special app access > Install unknown apps.

tac These are system apps. To even see them, you have to select Show system apps as an additional option.

The screen they're talking about shows system apps by default, unfortunately.

suson

great thanks, so they are indeed supposed to be there. That's what I wanted to confirm. I will read the links. Thanks again