Get caller identity in service's onBind() in Android

Question

In the onBind() method of a service I'd like to check whether the caller has a particular permission. For that I need to find the identity of the caller.

I expected the following code to return the caller package name but instead I get the package name of the service. What am I doing wrong?

Binder.getCallingUid()
String pkg = getPackageManager().getNameForUid(uid);

Answer 1

There's no need to do this type of operation. If you want to protect binding, starting or stopping your Service then add the android:permission attribute to your manifest declaration of the Service:

<service android:name=".MyService"
         android:permission="com.example.myapp.permission.SERVICE_USER" >
    <intent-filter>
    ...
    </intent-filter>
</service>

The system will automatically ensure that any app trying to use your service holds the specified permission. You only use the enforce/check permission APIs inside of binder exposed calls. You may find this article helpful: http://po.st/d6eTXj.