DNS Queries to "update.googleapis.com"

contour0806

Hi all, I am running NextDNS and something in my device keeps calling the mother ship and the following query to this server: 'update.googleapis.com' always gets blocked. Because of the multiple profiles I have, I am not sure which app is calling home. I have Aurora Store but network is always disabled unless I need to check something. Would this query be coming from the OS itself or an app?

unwat

contour0806

Here is a list of the default connections GrapheneOS makes: https://grapheneos.org/faq#default-connections.

update.googleapis.com isn't listed on the website, so it's definitely an app you have installed. If you really want to figure out which app is doing the lookups, your best bet would be to figure it out using process of elimination or using something like Netguard to figure out which app is connecting to that url.

sav

Hi,
can confirm this definitely happens with vanilla GrapheneOS - just have flashed and no installed apps yet.
More specifically bundled Vanadium Browser attempts following connections:

translate.googleapis.com, when going into Vanadium Settings -> Languages
update.googleapis.com, when going into Vanadium Settings -> Privacy and Security (ironically)

(via Pi-hole logs, this is what I could identify for now)

You may need to restart the Browser app and scroll a bit inside menu entry.
At least, these domains are not listed in What kind of connections do the OS and bundled apps make by default?.

tmp

p6/7 022300: Created new user profile. First launch of Vanadium...

Settings > Privacy: No connections logged by Pi-hole
Settings > Languages: translate.googleapis.com and update.googleapis.com and *.gvt1.com

No settings were changed; only clicked into the menu entries (Privacy and Languages).

https://i.imgur.com/xkSVQen.png

contour0806

It's a bit weird that the OS seems to be calling Google. I will re-flash a device and see this with 0 apps installed.

hisar

Unlike Chrome/Chromium, Vanadium does not make connections not requested by the app as part of providing the WebView implementation in the OS. If you choose to use it as your browser, it performs similar connections as the ones performed by the OS above. It does not send any identifying information to servers, etc. but rather fetches some static assets like dictionaries when triggered by usage of the app. We're working on eliminating everything unnecessary and making our servers the default for handling anything that cannot simply be shipped with Vanadium for one reason or another such as requiring quicker updates.

Sounds to me like the team is very well aware of this.