The Android Rachio app insists on having access to system settings, with the reason that it is required to find local WiFi. Well, no, that cannot be the case as no other app on my phone requires such access, although several have WiFi access. Further, this is a serious security issue as such access is essentially giving keys the kingdom. Hope someone can help shed light on this.
Thanks,
Bill
Hi,
I’m not sure exactly which permission is at fault but I think it’s probably the permission used for configuring wifi settings or maybe the one that allows us to enable/disable the wifi connection. We use those permissions during the controller setup process to connect to a wifi network the controller starts when it’s first powered on. If we didn’t request those permissions you would need to manually force the phone to connect to a network 3 or 4 times during the setup process.
On Android 4 the wifi settings permission does allow us to delete existing wifi connections but not to see the password. I think on Android 5+ the app is isolated and is only able to change wifi networks it configured so we’re limited to the one network we add for the setup process.
Anyhow in Android no app that isn’t part of the OS can request system permissions like the one to remotely wipe the device.
It’s not so much the app having wifi access, but letting the app/phone push that wifi info to the Rachio device itself. Any app that has a device setup associated with it (ie push wifi settings) will require similar access.
I have several such devices that use the phone for Wi-Fi setup. None require access to settings.