android - trying to send intent to other app: error SecurityException: Permission Denial: starting Intent

Question

I'm trying to send an intent from app A to app B. In the activity of app A I do the following:

Intent i = new Intent();
i.setAction("com.example.test2.REQUEST_RESPONSE");
i.putExtra("info", "bla bla bla");
startActivityForResult(i, 0);

In app B I have the following activity in the manifest:

    <activity android:name=".Receiving"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:exported="false" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="com.example.test2.REQUEST_RESPONSE" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>

and this in the activity's onCreate:

Intent intent = getIntent();
if (intent.getAction().equals("com.example.test2.REQUEST_RESPONSE")) {
    Log.e("Received", "Intent received thank you!");
}

With this I receive the following error:

01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to     resume activity {com.example.test/com.example.test.MainActivity}:     java.lang.SecurityException: Permission Denial: starting Intent { act=example.test2.REQUEST_RESPONSE cmp=example.test2/.Receiving (has extras) } from ProcessRecord{41ae02d8 31200:com.example.test/u0a10107} (pid=31200, uid=10107) not exported from uid 10115
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.ActivityThread.performResumeActivity(ActivityThread.java:2742)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.ActivityThread.handleResumeActivity(ActivityThread.java:2771)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2235)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.ActivityThread.access$600(ActivityThread.java:141)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1234)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5039)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:793)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:560)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200): Caused by: java.lang.SecurityException: Permission Denial: starting Intent { act=com.example.test2.REQUEST_RESPONSE cmp=com.example.test2/.Receiving (has extras) } from ProcessRecord{41ae02d8 31200:com.example.test/u0a10107} (pid=31200, uid=10107) not exported from uid 10115
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1425)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1379)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.ActivityManagerProxy.startActivity(ActivityManagerNative.java:1870)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.Instrumentation.execStartActivity(Instrumentation.java:1412)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.Activity.startActivityForResult(Activity.java:3370)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.Activity.startActivityForResult(Activity.java:3331)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at com.example.test.MainActivity.onResume(MainActivity.java:125)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnResume(Instrumentation.java:1185)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.Activity.performResume(Activity.java:5182)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    at android.app.ActivityThread.performResumeActivity(ActivityThread.java:2732)
01-18 12:30:44.950: E/AndroidRuntime(31200):    ... 12 more

If I remove the category from the intent filter I get this error instead:

01-18 12:21:03.059: E/AndroidRuntime(30865): Caused by: android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: No Activity found to handle Intent { act=com.example.test2.REQUEST_RESPONSE (has extras) }

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Change Activity Manifest Tag as below so that it opens the Second App.

<activity android:name=".Receiving"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:exported="true" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="com.example.test2.REQUEST_RESPONSE" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>

The reason it is Crashing is because you set android:exported="false" which mean that other process cannot access this Activity. So you set it to true and do the same it will not crash.