com.sec.automation Copy

A small Samsung platform component labelled "TetheringAutomation". It is signed by Samsung OEM keys that also sign the Android framework, has no launcher entry, declares no permissions in the builds recorded here, and is only around 21 to 33 kilobytes. Samsung's own published application lists for Galaxy devices confirm it as a standard preinstall. Samsung publishes no description of what it does. Its label places it somewhere in the tethering and mobile hotspot area, but that is all the evidence there is, and it should not be confused with Auto Hotspot, the documented Galaxy sharing feature, which is a separate package (com.sec.mhs.smarttethering) covered separately on this site. We could not source what this package contributes to tethering, so its function is recorded here as unknown rather than guessed at. Version note: unusually for a Samsung platform component, its version does not track the Android release. Samsung's application lists from Android 10 and Android 11 Galaxy devices already show version 2.0.1, and every build recorded here, across target SDK levels 31 to 37, is still 2.0.1. That is consistent with a component that has not changed in years, so there is no sign of a version-specific behaviour change, though the absence of a version bump is not proof that none occurred. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk deployments it has no enrolment or management role and nothing a user interacts with. Where the concern is stopping devices being used as hotspots, the supported control is the platform user restriction DISALLOW_CONFIG_TETHERING, which prevents a user configuring and using tethering and portable hotspots and applies to all forms of tethering, not to one package. Prefer that restriction, because an EMM can report on it and reapply it, and because disabling an undocumented component of unknown function is not a reliable substitute.

• UserManager.DISALLOW_CONFIG_TETHERING - Android Developers →
• Galaxy A51 5G (A516V) Application List - Samsung Knox CC Mode documentation →
• Galaxy XCover Pro LTE (G715U) Application List - Samsung Knox CC Mode documentation →
• Package provenance for com.sec.automation - 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).
• Never reported as user-facing, so it runs as a background or system component rather than an app the user opens.