[APP][6.0+] NetGuard - No-root firewall

[The DZEdge]

I didn't receive a real response from the Samsung security team, except that the report was received.

IMHO this is a pretty big security issue in the Galaxy store and it is taking much too long to address this.

You are SO right. Just so happen, I got a notification on my phone from the Galaxy Store that "Play Music - MP3 Music Player" has an available update. I cringe at the thought of what could be the result of performing this bogus update. And No, I don't even have an app resembling that name on my phone but, still. I'm glad I logged in and saw your post yesterday. This IS NOT cool. How did you discover the package name match with NetGuard? Good catch and thanks for alerting us. This kinda scary.

NOTE to ALL. This is a good reason NOT to have any App Store set to Auto-Update your Apps.

 

[M66B]

You are SO right. Just so happen, I got a notification on my phone from the Galaxy Store that "Play Music - MP3 Music Player" has an available update. I cringe at the thought of what could be the result of performing this bogus update. And No, I don't even have an app resembling that name on my phone but, still. I'm glad I logged in and saw your post yesterday. This IS NOT cool. How did you discover the package name match with NetGuard? Good catch and thanks for alerting us. This kinda scary.

NOTE to ALL. This is a good reason NOT to have any App Store set to Auto-Update your Apps.

The package name is in the URL of the app:

https://galaxystore.samsung.com/detail/eu.faircode.netguard

 

[fraschi51]

Who actually assigns the package name? I assume, the author after completely free arbitrariness, or? And then the store operator doesn't have to check whether this package name already exists? Similar to the creation of an account somewhere, where it then sometimes also says "An account with such a name already exists here - please think of another one." But presumably such a check would then only refer to the own store and not all stores worldwide .... and if you then do not offer NG in the Galaxy Store, probably only a mail to the store operator remains - as you did.

 

[M66B]

Who actually assigns the package name? I assume, the author after completely free arbitrariness, or? And then the store operator doesn't have to check whether this package name already exists? Similar to the creation of an account somewhere, where it then sometimes also says "An account with such a name already exists here - please think of another one." But presumably such a check would then only refer to the own store and not all stores worldwide .... and if you then do not offer NG in the Galaxy Store, probably only a mail to the store operator remains - as you did.

The developer assigns a package name and the "store" checks if it is unique. The problem here is that the Galaxy store doesn't check the apps in the Play store.

 

[M66B]

The answer from Samsung:

"Kindly know I have labeled your inquiry as a suggestion for the developing department to review."

My guess: nothing will happen. My judgement: Samsung is stupid.

 

[The DZEdge]

The answer from Samsung:

"Kindly know I have labeled your inquiry as a suggestion for the developing department to review."

My guess: nothing will happen. My judgement: Samsung is stupid.

I also contacted Samsung today. The chat session I had was downright shameful and leaves little confidence this will get resolved in a timely manner. I haven't closed the book on it though. I may make another attempt via another channel.

 

[M66B]

I also contacted Samsung today. The chat session I had was downright shameful and leaves little confidence this will get resolved in a timely manner. I haven't closed the book on it though. I may make another attempt via another channel.

I can't even respond to the answer I've got. I think "shameful" is pretty accurate description.

IMHO this is a pretty significant security problem, which should have been addressed right away. In any case I did my best by contacting Samsung in two different ways, by warning in this XDA thread, by warning on GitHub and by trying to contact the "author" of the "Music Player".

 

[bspmn]

Still have a Samsung account from my old phone so logged in and reported it as well. Pointed out the risk and asked them to look into it.

Got the template response email so agree they probably won't do anything. People really should have the option to remove unwanted bloat like the galaxy store on first set up..

 

[zinogre]

Hi! I've just discovered this great app and started using it. There is something I want to ask: from what I read from the FAQ, if IP filtering is disabled, allowed apps will connect to the internet as if there is no VPN? (I play a game that bans accounts for real money trade very aggressively, and the dev of this game may use device's location to check if the location jumped unusually (which may indicate RMT). I don't think Netguard will affect it, but better have some experts view on this).

Thanks for reading my noob question.

 

[bspmn]

So I received a reply from Samsung;

'Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting us. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

Regarding your inquiry, your inquiry has been forwarded to the department in charge, and the department has stopped selling the application with the same package name as your application.'

The link above now shows the app is delisted hopefully they got in touch with you @M66B

 

[M66B]

Hi! I've just discovered this great app and started using it. There is something I want to ask: from what I read from the FAQ, if IP filtering is disabled, allowed apps will connect to the internet as if there is no VPN? (I play a game that bans accounts for real money trade very aggressively, and the dev of this game may use device's location to check if the location jumped unusually (which may indicate RMT). I don't think Netguard will affect it, but better have some experts view on this).

Thanks for reading my noob question.

Disabling filtering will disable managing individual connections only.

Note that there is no remote VPN server.

 

[M66B]

So I received a reply from Samsung;

'Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting us. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

Regarding your inquiry, your inquiry has been forwarded to the department in charge, and the department has stopped selling the application with the same package name as your application.'

The link above now shows the app is delisted hopefully they got in touch with you @M66B

It took some time, but the malicious app is indeed gone now.
I didn't receive any notice from Samsung though.

 

[M66B]

NetGuard has been available and has been supported for 6 years and 2 months now and will keep being maintained and supported for the foreseeable future, despite the constant stream of disappointing messages I am receiving.

Lately, somebody asked for a new feature, which would be useful to a few people only, probably for him alone. I said "no" to this, explaining why not, and since this "no" I have been receiving multiple messages from him each day.

If you want to demotivate independent developers, this is one of the recipes.

 

[markdewet]

NetGuard has been available and has been supported for 6 years and 2 months now and will keep being maintained and supported for the foreseeable future, despite the constant stream of disappointing messages I am receiving.

Lately, somebody asked for a new feature, which would be useful to a few people only, probably for him alone. I said "no" to this, explaining why not, and since this "no" I have been receiving multiple messages from him each day.

If you want to demotivate independent developers, this is one of the recipes.

It is such a pity that happens. As a user, I can attest to the quality and usefulness of the app and I appreciate the work that has gone into the creation of this app. So please keep up the great work.

 

[mizifih]

Hi there. I need to block/unblock YouTube data usage on my phone, but not just simply blocking the app, I also need to block YouTube being accessed from another apps, like chrome or any other that playback videos hosted on YouTube. While WiFi access to YouTube should still be possible.

Can I do that with this app?

 

[lukval]

2 mizifih: Isn't it somethink like 'Open links in apps'?

 

[Tom100%]

Hi, I'm net to using Netguard. I've installed it on my Asus Zenfone 8.

I don't see the Netguard key icon in the phones status bar - am I missing some obvious setting?

Thanks.

---
Just discovered the answer: Display > System bars > Status bar icon manager > enable VPN.

 

[rookie-krewkie]

Hi there! Can NetGuard provide some scenario when i have L2TP (or another) VPN active and when it suddenly will be forced to stop, NetGuard blocks all of my internet automatically. And when this VPN launches again, NetGuard allows traffic as before.

 

[La_Globule]

NetGuard is itself a VPN and you can't have two VPNs active in Android at the same time.
See here https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard/blob/master/FAQ.md#user-content-faq2

 

[rookie-krewkie]

NetGuard is itself a VPN and you can't have two VPNs active in Android at the same time.
See here https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard/blob/master/FAQ.md#user-content-faq2

Thanx a lot. I am not so deep in `net-theme` so excuse me: i may ask dummy questions )