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So, I was going through google documentation.

Activities and services, in the description of the exported attribute, mention this:

The default value depends on whether the service contains intent filters. The absence of any filters means that it can be invoked only by specifying its exact class name.

or

The default value depends on whether the activity contains intent filters. The absence of any filters means that the activity can be invoked only by specifying its exact class name. This implies that the activity is intended only for application-internal use (since others would not know the class name)

So.. Say we have an activity without any permissions or intent filters, and we even explicitly declare it to false so it's not exported.

Does the quote above mean that another application can still use it, if it accesses it through it's full name (e.g. .MyTestActivity or even com.package/.MyTestActivity) ?

Or am I missing something - I do not get the reference to the 'exact class name' in the documentation. I mean.. the class name is not that big of a secret.

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If the application does not export any intent filters - it is only for that application on its own, no more, no less! :) However, if export is applied to intent filters, other apps can use that and do whatever it has to do. This means, the other apps would have to know the exact intents to intercept it and handle it. – t0mm13b Mar 23 at 1:52
I'm mentioning that the imaginary activity does not have any intent filters, and has the exported flag to false. Can it still be accessed by other applications? That is my question! [ and assuming there is no android:permission flag in the activity either ] – AndroidSec Mar 23 at 2:04
The answer to your imaginary activity that does not have intent filters other than Android's own, cannot be intercepted by other applications! – t0mm13b Mar 23 at 2:04
BTW it should be noted that is sort of question is definitely off-topic as this is not a programmer's forum - any dev related subject matter should be posted across on StackOverflow. Please read the FAQ - Thanks :) – t0mm13b Mar 23 at 2:08
ok, thanks anyway! I understand now :-) – AndroidSec Mar 23 at 2:36

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