com.tencent.soter.soterserver Copy

This is the device-side service for TENCENT SOTER, which Tencent's own open-source repository describes as "a biometric standard as well as a platform held by Tencent", used in scenarios such as WeChat fingerprint payment and fingerprint authentication in WeChat Official Account pages and Mini Programs. Tencent's README tells app developers integrating the SOTER SDK to declare a package query for com.tencent.soter.soterserver in their manifest. In that repository's client SDK, the SoterCoreTreble class binds to a service in this package (intent action com.tencent.soter.soterserver.ISoterService, package com.tencent.soter.soterserver), and the ISoterService AIDL interface it binds to exposes operations to generate, export and remove app and authentication keys, sign a challenge, and return a device identifier and version. So the package is the on-device end of an interface that Tencent's SDK calls; the SDK source does not say how each device maker implements the service. On this site it is recorded across several makes (DOOGEE, HOTWAV, Lenovo, OPPO, OUKITEL, Xiaomi, fezawio and realme) on devices reporting OS API levels 30 to 36. Where this site holds signer data, which is 3 of those 8 makes (Xiaomi, OUKITEL and OPPO), it is signed by that maker's own OEM key, and on some of those observations the key also signs the Android framework, a platform-level key. Its recorded labels include "SoterService", "soter_server" and "aidlserverdemo", and this site records it requesting only INTERNET, QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES and RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED. This site aggregates permissions across observations rather than per build, so which builds declare each of them cannot be established. Version note: Tencent's SDK has two routes. SoterCore first looks for a SOTER security provider registered in the device's Java security providers (the SoterCoreBeforeTreble class) and separately offers a route that binds to this package (the SoterCoreTreble class). The class names suggest the service-based route is the one intended for devices built after Project Treble, but the cited source does not tie either route to a specific Android version, so which route a given device uses could not be sourced. Tencent's README records Android 9 support and Huawei device support being added in SDK version 2.0. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk use it has no enrolment or policy role identified in the sources cited here. Its relevance is to apps that use SOTER, notably WeChat's fingerprint payment as described by Tencent. If it is the service Tencent's SDK binds to, disabling it would be expected to stop the service-based route working for such apps on that device; the effect on any given app was not verified here. Where WeChat payment or another SOTER-based app is not in use, the Android Management API's application policy documents a "disabled" field for an app, noting that app data is preserved when it is set; test on a representative device first.

• Tencent/soter README - GitHub →
• SoterCoreTreble.java - Tencent/soter client SDK, GitHub →
• SoterCore.java - Tencent/soter client SDK, GitHub →
• ISoterService.aidl - Tencent/soter client SDK, GitHub →
• Policy resource (ApplicationPolicy) - Android Management API →
• Package provenance for com.tencent.soter.soterserver - Android System App Database →

• Re-signed by each device maker with its own platform key - 4 different certificates appear across 3 device makers in our sample. That is the signature of a stock AOSP/system package every OEM builds and signs itself, not a single maker's or a third party's preinstall. These are platform-level keys: they also sign the Android framework itself.
• Its largest observed manifest declares 3 permissions: 3 install-time.
• APK size ranges from 0.0 MB to 5.9 MB across the reporting device profiles, so the build differs substantially between them.
• Never reported as user-facing, so it runs as a background or system component rather than an app the user opens.