(#) PreferenceActivity should not be exported
!!! WARNING: PreferenceActivity should not be exported
This is a warning.
Id
: `ExportedPreferenceActivity`
Summary
: PreferenceActivity should not be exported
Severity
: Warning
Category
: Security
Platform
: Android
Vendor
: Android Open Source Project
Feedback
: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/new?component=192708
Since
: Initial
Affects
: Kotlin and Java files and manifest files
Editing
: This check runs on the fly in the IDE editor
See
: http://securityintelligence.com/new-vulnerability-android-framework-fragment-injection
See
: https://goo.gle/ExportedPreferenceActivity
Implementation
: [Source Code](https://cs.android.com/android-studio/platform/tools/base/+/mirror-goog-studio-main:lint/libs/lint-checks/src/main/java/com/android/tools/lint/checks/PreferenceActivityDetector.kt)
Tests
: [Source Code](https://cs.android.com/android-studio/platform/tools/base/+/mirror-goog-studio-main:lint/libs/lint-tests/src/test/java/com/android/tools/lint/checks/PreferenceActivityDetectorTest.java)
Copyright Year
: 2014
Fragment injection gives anyone who can send your `PreferenceActivity`
an intent the ability to load any fragment, with any arguments, in your
process.
(##) Example
Here is an example of lint warnings produced by this check:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~text
AndroidManifest.xml:28:Warning: PreferenceActivity should not be
exported [ExportedPreferenceActivity]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can also visit the
[source code](https://cs.android.com/android-studio/platform/tools/base/+/mirror-goog-studio-main:lint/libs/lint-tests/src/test/java/com/android/tools/lint/checks/PreferenceActivityDetectorTest.java)
for the unit tests for this check to see additional scenarios.
The above example was automatically extracted from the first unit test
found for this lint check, `PreferenceActivityDetector.testWarningWhenImplicitlyExportingPreferenceActivity`.
To report a problem with this extracted sample, visit
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/new?component=192708.
(##) Suppressing
You can suppress false positives using one of the following mechanisms:
* Adding the suppression attribute
`tools:ignore="ExportedPreferenceActivity"` on the problematic XML
element (or one of its enclosing elements). You may also need to add
the following namespace declaration on the root element in the XML
file if it's not already there:
`xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"`.
```xml
...
...
```
* Using a suppression annotation like this on the enclosing
element:
```kt
// Kotlin
@Suppress("ExportedPreferenceActivity")
fun method() {
problematicStatement()
}
```
or
```java
// Java
@SuppressWarnings("ExportedPreferenceActivity")
void method() {
problematicStatement();
}
```
* Using a suppression comment like this on the line above:
```kt
//noinspection ExportedPreferenceActivity
problematicStatement()
```
* Using a special `lint.xml` file in the source tree which turns off
the check in that folder and any sub folder. A simple file might look
like this:
```xml
```
Instead of `ignore` you can also change the severity here, for
example from `error` to `warning`. You can find additional
documentation on how to filter issues by path, regular expression and
so on
[here](https://googlesamples.github.io/android-custom-lint-rules/usage/lintxml.md.html).
* In Gradle projects, using the DSL syntax to configure lint. For
example, you can use something like
```gradle
lintOptions {
disable 'ExportedPreferenceActivity'
}
```
In Android projects this should be nested inside an `android { }`
block.
* For manual invocations of `lint`, using the `--ignore` flag:
```
$ lint --ignore ExportedPreferenceActivity ...`
```
* Last, but not least, using baselines, as discussed
[here](https://googlesamples.github.io/android-custom-lint-rules/usage/baselines.md.html).