How SafetyNet Protects Your Android Device: Key Features and Benefits

As an Android developer, you ought to put your app’s data security and integrity at the top of your list. One way to do so is to use Google’s security feature called Android SafetyNet for applications deployed on the Google Play Store. 

SafetyNet has actually been around for some time, but if SafetyNet Android is a new term to you, then you are in the right place. In this article, we will tell you more than everything you need to know about how SafetyNet protects your Android device, including its limitations:

1What is SafetyNet Android?

For starters, SafetyNet Android is essentially a set of APIs and Google Play services that check the integrity and security of the device your app is running on to make it difficult for hackers to steal important data on your apps. 

It simply checks whether your app is interacting with genuine servers and running on a genuine device. This cuts across compatibility issues and security threats like bad URLs, device tampering, fake users, and harmful apps on the device. 

Recently, Google launched Play Integrity API to gradually replace Safetynet. While the Android SafetyNet API is still supported, it is expected to stop working on any version of your Android app by the end of January 2025. Play Integrity API offers all the integrity signals you get from Safetynet. 

However, this new API has more features like a user license and improved error messaging. Play Integrity API is designed so that you can easily get new features and also upgrade with minimal build time. 

2How SafetyNet Works?

SafetyNet Android uses its APIs to determine and prevent your app from running on compromised, unrecognized, or infected devices. Let’s break down how the underlying Android SafetyNet API works:

● The SafetyNet Attestation API gets a call from your Android app, including a number used once (nonce).

● Now, this API runs a check on the device runtime environment and sends this information to Google Servers requesting a signed attestation of assessment results.  

● Google servers then assess the information and respond with a signed attestation to the SafetyNet attestation service on the device the app is running. 

● The SafetyNet attestation service then sends this signed attestation to your Android app.
Now, your app then forwards this same signed attestation to your server for validation. 

● Now, your app then forwards this same signed attestation to your server for validation. 

● The server now validates the response and determines the anti-abuse decision. It then communicates it to the app. 

● The app will then decide to run on the gadget or fail to trust it depending on your server’s communication/decision. 

Source: Android Developers Document

3Features of SafetyNet

To work optimally, SafetyNet comes with several features including:

4Why SafetyNet is important?

SafetyNet is important to Android developers for the following reasons.

● It ensures that your app runs on uncompromised devices.

● It ensures that your app's data is not compromised by malicious actions of some fake applications on the device. If these apps are compromised, the data becomes vulnerable and can be a huge problem for the app developers and their users.   

● It ensures dependable and flawless applications on devices.

5Limitations of Safetynet on Android

While safetyNet Android is a good service for Android devices, it has some inherent limitations. Some of these limitations include: 

● It is limited in the frequency of checks it can do. It can only do a certain number of checks per day/minute, and you might need to make extra payments to meet your requirements.

● It is resource-consuming and leads to increased network usage and battery consumption on the device.

● It cannot replace DRM checks as well as the popular solid app attesting techniques.

● It can be bypassed via open-source tools like Magisk and SU Hide. 

● It depends on the internet and Google Services connectivity. 

● It does not give signals for app-specific use cases like GPS emulation or screen lock status.

6How to Fix SafetyNet Issues?

While using SafetyNet, you will probably encounter some issues triggered by different factors. Before we explore more on how to fix SafetyNet issues, let’s first see some of the common triggers of SafetyNet issues. 

7Bonus Tip: Ensure Business Devices' Safety with MDM Solutions

Frankly, managing devices in a business enterprise infrastructure can be quite challenging especially where there are multiple devices operated by different users. You might have well-written policies, but still, some users might unknowingly or deliberately install malicious apps that can compromise the business device and sensitive data. 

So, one way to prevent this is to find and install a suitable enterprise Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution like AirDroid Business. An MDM solution allows you to deploy a policy that prevents users from installing any applications from unknown or unverified sources. 

AirDroid Business, for example, has the “Allow Unknown Sources” MDM policy for this purpose. In this policy, only the administrators of the organization can install apps via the settings. 

This way, you will avert some of the potential risks, such as malware attacks and information leakage, while not hindering the installation of relevant business third-party apps.

8Summary

Over the years, SafetyNet Android has undoubtedly proved useful as one of the useful security toolbox features for Android app developers. Remember, though, that cybersecurity threats are evolving, and so are the user needs, and that there are some inherent limitations of SafetyNet. In this regard, you should always deploy SafetyNet and other suitable APIs/services to counter potential app abuse threats.