Last week, an easy workaround was discovered which could easily bring Google Play apps and services to the Mate 30 series smartphones. This involves the installation of a third-party app called LZ Play, a widely used enterprise device manager app in China.
However, shortly after mainstream medias begun reporting this workaround solution for the Mate 30 smartphones, the site hosting the LZ Play apk had became inaccessible. Furthermore, those who’d already installed the app on their devices also claimed the app no long work as per usual.
Some bizarre relationship between Huawei and LZ Play
Apparently, LZ Play requires a stab of special permissions in order to install “System” apps on the device. According to renowned Android security researcher John Wu, two of these special permissions are not even documented.
The two undocumented MDM permissions include:
- com.huawei.permission.sec.MDM_INSTALL_SYS_APP
- com.huawei.permission.sec.MDM_INSTALL_UNDETACHABLE_APP
Moving on, Wu also mentioned that the use of these MDM permissions actually require Huawei’s prior approval. After Huawei went through a through review of the app, they will then provide a digital signature which gives the app access to those special permissions.
This is kind of bizarre since Huawei would have probably knew of LZ Play existence as the company is likely to have reviewed the app before they provided LZ Play with the necessary digital signature.
However, a Huawei’s spokesman has reached out to Android Central earlier today claiming that the company has no involvement with LZ Play.
Huawei Mate 30 smartphones no longer pass Google’s SafetyNet tests
For those who do now know, Google’s SafetyNet tests ensure that a device is fully secure and has not been tempered with. In order to use some of the Google apps, a device need to first pass it’s SafetyNet tests.
So as per @alexdobie original tweet. Failed CTS check = no more Google Pay working. So I tested.
But considering this was working less than 2 days ago, this is not good. pic.twitter.com/0E8pGNtY97
— Damien Wilde (@iamdamienwilde) October 1, 2019
Although Mate 30 Pro devices loaded with Google apps using LZ play initially passed the SafetyNet tests, it is now reported to be failing. As a result, Google apps including Google Pay, no longer works on the device. This had already been proven by Damien Wilde from Google9to5.
With today’s developments, it is safe to say that the LZ Play workaround no longer works for the Mate 30 smartphones. Previously, Huawei’s Richard Yu commented about bootloader of the recently announced Mate 30 Pro unlockable. However, his claim was quickly reversed by a Huawei spokesman who reaffirmed that the company has “no plan” of doing so.
Source: Medium | Google9to5 | Android Central
