When would one use the BRICK permission?

Question

In Android, there used to be a permission with the name BRICK that could be used to potentially disable the device. Other than hearing it as an urban myth, I do not really know if this permission can really be used to brick a device.

All I can think of are the following reasons:

• To build a LoJack kind of an application that can remote disable a phone should it discover that the phone was stolen.
• For enterprises to be able to remote-wipe a phone should the phone get lost somewhere.

Is there any other sane reason why a third-party app would require to use it? And why was it removed (not sure) from GingerBread?

Also, what does it really do anyways? Reset the phone to its factory settings?

Answer 1

Third-party apps cannot get this permission, or various other permissions defined in the SDK, unless perhaps they are signed by the system firmware signing key.

I do not see where the BRICK permission is used anywhere in the OS at present.

Answer 2

It's still there in the android documentation and there is no indication that it is deprecated. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission.html#BRICK It is a system level permission and so has to be signed with the same signature as the android version build. So an app developer cannot use it. It may be usable on an emulator but I'm not sure.

As to WHY someone would want it? I can only think of the same reasons you mentioned: enterprise remote wipe or similar.

Edit: Great link discussing the matter:

http://androidcommunity.com/execute-android-brick-20110204/

According to that, it's no longer available and when it was, it was only for system builders possibly to prevent people from hacking their phones. Didn't motorola get into controversy with the Droid 2 or something over this?

Answer 3

If the BRICK permission were declared in an app, Android would describe it to the user as follows (source, at or near line 1626, or here):

permanently disable phone/tablet

Allows the app to disable the entire phone/tablet permanently. This is very dangerous.

While this is documented, only system apps signed by the platform key can use this permission, and I am not aware of an app within stock Android that uses this permission. As such, I do not know the actual behavior this permission controls.