Give (system) applications more permissions

[Guest Xeli]

Hello!

I've posted a similar post like this back on xda as well, but maybe someone over here could help me as well! ;)

I've been looking for a way to achieve the problem stated in the topic title for a very long time but without result...

So what I'd like to accomplish is to give my application the ability to execute root/su -c commands without the device being actually rooted.

If this has to be done at the compiling of system.img / rom-cooking thats oke..

From what gathered through searching the source is that the init executable in the root of the device starts zygote, and zygote in turn is responsible of starting up each application.

This Zygote also manages what uid each application gets? If so shouldn't it be possible to change that uid to "system" or even "root"?

When you look at running processes on a device the "phone" app has as user radio..once again indicates it's very well possible to change under what user an app is being executed?

Also looking through the source the way an application gets a different uid seems to be because of sharing the same certificate on build, and in the androidmanifest.xml having

android:sharedUserId="android.uid.phone"

Am i have not yet find out where android.uid.* comes from but should the uid: system and root be there as well?

If anyone could enlighten me whether i am on the completely wrong track or if this makes any sense i'd be greatly appreciated!

Richard

Edited February 6, 2010 by Xeli