com.samsung.android.networkstack.tethering.overlay Copy

Samsung's Runtime Resource Overlay for the Tethering module, the sibling of com.samsung.android.networkstack above and the Samsung-namespaced counterpart to com.google.android.networkstack.tethering.overlay, which is documented separately on this site. It has no label of its own on most devices, declares only POST_NOTIFICATIONS, and is recorded at roughly 13 KB to 17 KB, all consistent with a resource-only overlay rather than an app. AOSP describes the target as the module that "shares an Android device's internet connection with other connected client devices, which can connect to tethering devices over Wi-Fi, USB, Bluetooth, or Ethernet", and notes that it is updatable outside the normal Android release cycle so that device makers can meet carrier requirements while reducing the cost of individual customisations. An overlay is how those per-device values reach a module the build cannot edit. The module declares an overlayable named TetheringConfig whose entries include the interface name patterns for USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NCM, WiGig and Wi-Fi Direct tethering, the tethering DHCP range, the permitted upstream types and whether upstream selection is automatic, BPF offload and legacy DHCP server switches, and the mobile hotspot provisioning and entitlement check settings. Which of these the Samsung build sets is not published and could not be sourced. The entitlement entries are the ones worth being aware of, since they are the hook by which a build can require an operator provisioning check before tethering starts. That behaviour is configured here, not policed here: it is the module that acts on the values. Version note: this site's sample records the overlay with version names 11 through 16 and target SDK 30 to 36, so it has tracked Android 11 to Android 16 rather than being tied to one release. AOSP records feature changes to the Tethering module across releases, including split tunnelling added in Android 13. Whether the values this overlay sets changed across those releases could not be sourced. Provenance: as with its sibling, this site's sample records it only on Samsung devices, signed with Samsung certificates marked as also signing the framework. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk use it has no enrolment or policy role and nothing a user interacts with, and it is not the control for tethering. Where tethering must be prevented on managed devices, that is a policy decision applied through the EMM, not something to achieve by removing a configuration overlay. Disabling it would revert the Tethering module to its unoverlaid defaults, which can change hotspot and tethering behaviour in ways that are firmware specific, so it is best left enabled and only considered with careful per-device testing.

• Tethering - Android Open Source Project →
• Change the value of an app's resources at runtime (RROs) - Android Open Source Project →
• Tethering overlayable.xml (packages/modules/Connectivity) - Android source →
• Package provenance for com.samsung.android.networkstack.tethering.overlay - Android System App Database →

• Signed by the device maker's own signing key (Samsung), so it is an OEM preinstall, but 2 different certificates appear across the fleet, so OEMs ship their own builds of it. It also signs the Android framework, so it is a platform-level key on its device(s). Inferred from the certificate appearing only on Samsung devices (508 packages, 10196 observations).
• Its largest observed manifest declares 1 permissions: 1 runtime (user-granted).
• Never reported as user-facing, so it runs as a background or system component rather than an app the user opens.