How to address android lint complaint about exported Firebase Messaging service implementations?

Question

Following the Google developer instructions on implementing Firebase in my app, I notice that android lint complains.

The idea is that we have to implement two services which inherit from Firebase services:

public class MyFirebaseInstanceIDService extends FirebaseInstanceIdService { ... }

public class MyFirebaseMessagingService extends FirebaseMessagingService { ... }

and then register those services in the manifest. But, it's not quite perfect. In particular, these two recommended AndroidManifest.xml service entries do not contain any special permissions:

<service android:name=".MyFirebaseMessagingService">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.google.firebase.MESSAGING_EVENT"/>
    </intent-filter>
</service>

<service android:name=".MyFirebaseInstanceIDService">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.google.firebase.INSTANCE_ID_EVENT"/>
    </intent-filter>
</service>

and so the linter says:

Exported services (services which either set exported=true or contain an intent-filter and do not specify exported=false) should define a permission that an entity must have in order to launch the service or bind to it. Without this, any application can use this service.

Should I just add this attribute to each service tag and be done with it

tools:ignore="ExportedService"

or is there a better approach in this situation? I mean, is it safe to expose these particular Firebase derived services like this?

Answer 1

You ask: ...is it safe to expose these particular Firebase derived services like this? It is if you trust the comments in the manifest files for these services.

In Android Studio, open your app's AndroidManifest.xml file. At the bottom of the window, select the tab for Merged Manifest. Scroll to find the entry for FirebaseMessagingService. Double-click on the line that contains the service name. The manifest file for the service should open and you will see this:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="com.google.firebase.messaging">
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="14"/>

    <application>

        <!-- FirebaseMessagingService performs security checks at runtime,
             no need for explicit permissions despite exported="true" -->
        <service android:name="com.google.firebase.messaging.FirebaseMessagingService" android:exported="true">
            <intent-filter android:priority="-500">
                <action android:name="com.google.firebase.MESSAGING_EVENT"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </service>

    </application>
</manifest>

Note the comment: FirebaseMessagingService performs security checks at runtime, no need for explicit permissions despite exported="true"

You can do the same for FirebaseInstanceIdService and see the same comment.

If you trust the comments (I do), you can safely ignore the lint warnings or disable the checks.