Android support on hiatus (official BOINC app only)
26 May 2020 10:13:57 UTC
Topic 222632
(moderation:
Update: we do support Android again!
Hi everyone,
today we have to announce that our support for BOINC on Android takes a hiatus until further notice. Einstein@Home on Android will automatically be available again as soon as BOINC releases an update of their Android app on the Play Store.
Background: last year we announced ("Looking ahead") that the dedicated SSL/TLS certificate infrastructure we've maintained for very old BOINC clients will expire on May 25th, 2020. Unfortunately, there hasn't been any update for the BOINC Android app (7.4.53) which is now almost four years old and it doesn't support recent enough security standards (certificate authorities).
We value the confidentiality and integrity of your personal data and we can't change this situation without impacting system and data security.
Cheers,
Oliver
Einstein@Home Project
Will add 'automatically
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Will add 'automatically update' for this app in the Google Play store. Thanks for letting me know. I was wondering why this is the only project that couldn't connect!
Is it just about the
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Is it just about the certificate? I'm asking, because I'm using NativeBOINC on this device (BOINC version 7.0.36) but with new ca-bundle.crt and two days after the deadline it's still connecting so far without any issues. Will it continue to work for now, or are we still in some transition phase and I need to expect some issues in the next days?
According to Upcoming SSL/TLS security updates / old BOINC client support it shouldn't work since Nov. 27th 2019 as the minimum version specified there is 7.4.36.
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Just the cert. I'd have
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Just the cert. I'd have assumed that from the get go, with your otherwise old build with a new cert built in working being the confirmation.
Well according to the other
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Well according to the other news thread, it's not just the certificate:
" we plan to remove support for the outdated TLS 1.0 and 1.1 protocols and also use a revised list of supported encryption cipher suites (...) The minimum known supported version of BOINC will be 7.4.36 (using OpenSSL >= 1.0.1)"
So the question remains: have all the changes already been done and my non-standard client supports all what is needed despite it's version number or did they wait with some of the changes untill the old certificate expires and will implement them in the next days or weeks?
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Hi guys,your assumption
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Hi guys,
your assumptions are correct: the current change is solely related to the certificate chain. All other changes have long been deployed (in November 2019). Bottom line: if your client works today, it'll continue to do so as we have no further changes planned.
I updated the title to reflect that this only affects the official BOINC Android app.
Cheers,
Oliver
Einstein@Home Project
Thanks a lot for the
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Thanks a lot for the clarification.
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One note- On newer Android
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One note- On newer Android devices you can install the Boinc Beta client (click the Beta link in the play store or directly from berkeley). I have that running on my Android 9 and Android 10 devices and I am not seeing any connection issues.
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php
Sure, that's to be expected.
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Sure, that's to be expected. Good idea, although that might not be for everyone.
Thanks!
Einstein@Home Project
Oliver, thanks for starting
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Oliver, thanks for starting this post, but I didn't know something was wrong until my android was cool to the touch. I saw Boinc was not running, went online and saw this post. A project announcement could help flag other users of this, but perhaps that is water under the bridge now.
I have a Moto G4 that runs Android 7.0, and it can't be upgraded beyond that version. I signed up for Boinc Beta in the Google Play store, but no new version is available. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, but assuming that is not the case, it appears my only options are to either sign up for another project or stop running Boinc on my G4. Any help would be appreciated.
Additionally, I have six tasks that are completed, but because the cert expired, I can't seem to upload these tasks. Is there a way to have these uploaded, or are these tasks going to be lost?
Hi guys, with a bit of luck
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Hi guys, with a bit of luck BOINC might (re)release it's current Android app (7.4.53) with an updated CA list. That would be ideal as it would still support older Android devices while being able to establish secure connection again.
Bill, no, there's no way to upload those tasks by other means. Should BOINC release the app update, though, your client will simply reconnect to our servers and upload them. So you should hold on to them for now, but probably disable our project (our BOINC entirely) until the update reached you.
I'll keep you posted!
Oliver
Einstein@Home Project