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What I Learned from Migrating to a Phone with Android 13

I recently migrated from a phone with with Android 8 to one with Android 13. I learned some interesting things about recent Android in the process and some related workarounds that I would like to share.

I did get a new phone for security updates only, Android 8 with no updates from Huawei for 12+ months was asking for a replacement more and more every day. I had both phones, old and new, at hand working and charged. The plan was to get the new phone set up with contacts, messaging (Signal + Telegram), banking, two-factor apps (Google Authenticator), and a few small tools, all while only uploading the bare minimum to the Google cloud, and so that the new phone would roughly feel like the old one except with security updates.

Here's what I ran into:

I cannot install Telegram unless I prove my 18+ age to Google. How?

That makes some sense, so how do prove to Google that I'm 18+? They offer a test bank transfer or uploading passport pictures. Google has no business with my passport so I tried my VISA card and learned that debit cards are not supported — why?! — they want credit, and I don't have any, never had, never needed to. The VISA card stunt was already over my limit for nothing but installing an app, passport pictures beyond what I would even try. So what else could I do?

It turns out that installing an APK works for 18+ apps without age verification. For Telegram, their website offers an official APK download, so that was download, install, done.

How about the general case, though? APK download websites are no option to me for security, but is that the end?

It turns out, one Android phone can send an installed app's APK file to another. So I needed to find a secure way to export, send, receive, install.

Sharing APK files among two Android phones?

I found these general approaches:

  • a) Use the app share feature of F-Droid
  • b) Use APKShare to share the APK file directly
  • c) Use APK Explorer & Editor to write split APKs to storage and share these files via a file manager like Files.

In the process I learned that F-Droid's app sharing only works for F-Droid apps, fair enough. And stock Android feature "share via Bluetooth" rejects transfer of .apk and (Signal) .backup files but can be fooled via renaming files. Renaming the file only works though if you have a local file to begin with, which is not the case with APKShare.

It turns out that LocalSend, that uses WiFi rather than Bluetooth, has no problem sharing .apk files, is friendly to use, and can be selected when asked for an app to share a file with. LocalSend solved that problem.

In the case of split APKs, I found the files produced by APK Explorer & Editor at location /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.apk.editor/*/*.apk and SAI for a way to install them on the new phone.

While playing with file transfer, screens tend to turn off faster than ideal all the time, but Coffee is great for forcing the display to stay awake.

No button to toggle Silent/Sound/Vibration in Quick Settings? Restore!

At some point I noticed that the Quick Settings (near the top of the screen) lack a button to toggle the phone from silent, to vibration only, to speakers enabled. Turns out Sound Toggle solves that problem, that was a glad find.

Android 13 Sound Toggle

No numbers row on top of the keyboard? Settings!

For the missing numbers row, GBoard fortunately has a setting to bring the numbers row back.

That's all I have for now, have a good time with Android.

Best, Sebastian

(German) Mamas Weihnachtsstolle

Zutaten

  • 1.000 g Mehl
  • 175 g Zucker
  • 10 g Salz
  • 0,5 l Milch
  • 84 g Hefe (2 Würfel zu je 42 g)
  • 250 g ungesalzene Butter
  • 500 g Sultaninen
  • 200 g Mandeln
  • 30 g bittere Mandeln (Vorsicht: roh giftig!)
  • 100 g Zitronat
  • 35 ml brauner Rum

Besonderes Küchengerät

  • Eine sehr große Schüssel (mindestens 3 l Fassungsvermögen)

Zubereitung

Phase 1: Rosinen-Bad

  • Die Sultaninen/Rosinen und den Rum in eine flache Schale geben und gut verteilen, damit der Rum gleichmäßig von den Rosinen aufgenommen werden kann.

Phase 2: Rosinen-Schlaf (Warten 1)

  • Die Rosinen etwa 10 Stunden ziehen lassen.

Phase 3: Mandel-Häutung

  • Die Mandeln und bitteren Mandeln in ein Gefäß geben, mit kochendem Wasser bedecken, 10 Minuten warten.
  • An ein bis zwei Mandeln testen, ob sich die Haut lösen lässt, sonst weiter ziehen lassen.
  • Das Wasser abgießen und mit den Händen die nun leicht lösbare Schale von den Mandeln pellen.
  • Die gepellten Mandel mit einem Mixer oder einem Messer grob zerkleinern.

Phase 4: Der Hefe-See

  • Die sehr große Schüssel füllen mit Mehl, Zucker, Salz und mit den Händen gleichmäßig verteilen.
  • Von der Milch die Hälfte — 0,25 l — auf dem Herd bis auf Handwärme erwärmen, nicht zum Kochen bringen. Ist die Milch zu heiß, wird sie die Hefe kaputtmachen.
  • In der Mitte der Schüssel eine Kuhle formen, die für die Milch ausreichen kann, und dann die Milch hinein geben.
  • Danach die Hefe mit den Händen zerbröckeln, in kleinen Menge in die handwarme Milch geben, und in der Milch vollständig auflösen.
  • Vom Rand der Schüssel von der Mehl-Zucker-Salz-Basis solange nehmen und auf dem Hefe-See verteilen, bis dieser leicht aber vollständig bedeckt ist, damit die Hefe vor Zugluft und Kälte geschützt ist.

Phase 5: Hefe-Ausbruch (Warten 2)

  • Etwa 20 bis 30 Minuten warten, bis der Hefe-See seine Decke etwas angehoben hat und größere Risse sichtbar werden.

Phase 6: Butter

  • Die übrige Milch — 0,25 l — ebenfalls auf dem Herd erhitzen, aber nicht zum Kochen bringen, die Butter hinzugeben und schmelzen lassen.
  • Das Milch-Butter-Gemisch in kleineren Menge in die Schüssel geben und die entstehende Masse mit beiden Händen kneten, bis keine Butter mehr übrig ist und eine konsistente Masse entsteht.

Phase 7: Bevölkerung

  • Die Rum-Rosinen, Mandeln, bittere Mandeln und das Zitronat nach und nach vollständig in die Masse einarbeiten.

Phase 8: Gehen lassen (Warten 3)

  • Mit einem Geschirrhandtuch bedeckt 2 Stunden lang an einem eher warmen Ort gehen lassen. Die Hefe muss vor Zugluft und Kälte geschützt bleiben, sonst fällt der Teig in sich zusammen.

Phase 9: Backen (Warten 4)

  • Ofen vorheizen, bis er heiß ist; bei einem Herd ohne Thermometer circa 5 Minuten lang.
  • Etwa 15 Minuten lang bei starker Hitze backen, zum Beispiel Stufe 6 von 8.
  • Etwa 45 Minuten lang bei mittlerer Hitze backen, zum Beispiel Stufe 4 von 8.
  • Die Stolle ist fertig gebacken, sobald sie vorsichtigem Druck von oben widerstehen kann.

Phase 10: Dekorieren

  • Die fertig gebackene Stolle ohne Abkühlen in Maßen mit Puderzucker bestreuen.
  • Fertig.

Expat 2.5.0 released, includes security fixes

libexpat is a fast streaming XML parser. Alongside libxml2, Expat is one of the most widely used software libre XML parsers written in C, precisely C99. It is cross-platform and licensed under the MIT license.

Expat 2.5.0 has been released earlier today. Most importantly, this release fixes CVE-2022-43680: a heap use-after-free vulnerability after overeager destruction of a shared DTD in function XML_ExternalEntityParserCreate in out-of-memory situations, with expected impact of denial of service or potentially arbitrary code execution. There are non-security bugfixes and other improvements, too. For more details, please check out the change log.

If you maintain Expat packaging or a bundled copy of Expat or a pinned version of Expat somewhere, please update to 2.5.0. Thank you!

Sebastian Pipping

uriparser 0.9.7 released

uriparser is a strictly RFC 3986 compliant software libre URI parsing and handling library written in C89 ("ANSI C"). uriparser is cross-platform, fast, supports both char and wchar_t string input natively, and is licensed under the New BSD license.

Earlier today uriparser 0.9.7 has been released. Version 0.9.7 fixes multiple issues with parsing IPv6 URIs, most importantly. For more details, please check out the change log.

If you maintain uriparser packaging or a bundled copy of uriparser or a pinned version of uriparser somewhere, please update to 0.9.7 — thank you!

Sebastian Pipping

Expat 2.4.9 released, includes security fixes

libexpat is a fast streaming XML parser. Alongside libxml2, Expat is one of the most widely used software libre XML parsers written in C, precisely C99. It is cross-platform and licensed under the MIT license.

Expat 2.4.9 has been released earlier today. Alongside the usual pile of improvements to the build system, most importantly this release fixes CVE-2022-40674: a heap use-after-free vulnerability in function doContent with expected impact of denial of service or potentially arbitrary code execution. For more details, please check out the change log.

If you maintain Expat packaging or a bundled copy of Expat or a pinned version of Expat somewhere, please update to 2.4.9. Thank you!

Sebastian Pipping

Expat 2.4.7 released

libexpat is a fast streaming XML parser. Alongside libxml2, Expat is one of the most widely used software libre XML parsers written in C, precisely C99. It is cross-platform and licensed under the MIT license.

Expat 2.4.7 has been released a few minutes ago. Most importantly, this release relaxes the fix to CVE-2022-25236 (introduced with release 2.4.5) which some of you have been waiting for, due to related incompatibilities.

For more details, please check out the change log.

If you maintain Expat packaging or a bundled copy of Expat or a pinned version of Expat somewhere, please update to 2.4.7. Thank you!

Sebastian Pipping

Expat 2.4.6 released

libexpat is a fast streaming XML parser. Alongside libxml2, Expat is one of the most widely used software libre XML parsers written in C, precisely C99. It is cross-platform and licensed under the MIT license.

Expat 2.4.6 has been released a few hours ago. This release fixes a regression introduced by one of the security fixes in 2.4.5.

For more details, please check out the change log.

If you maintain Expat packaging or a bundled copy of Expat or a pinned version of Expat somewhere, please update to 2.4.6. Thank you!

Sebastian Pipping

Expat 2.4.5 released, includes security fixes

libexpat is a fast streaming XML parser. Alongside libxml2, Expat is one of the most widely used software libre XML parsers written in C, precisely C99. It is cross-platform and licensed under the MIT license.

Expat 2.4.5 has been released a few hours ago. This release is about security fixes. There are 5 CVEs involved:

Regarding impact of vulnerabilities, please note that looking at a vulnerability in isolation may miss part of the picture; e.g. if Expat passes malformed data to the application using Expat and that application isn't preprared for Expat violating their agreed API contract, you may end up with code execution from something that looked close to harmless, in isolation.

For more details, please check out the change log.

If you maintain Expat packaging or a bundled copy of Expat or a pinned version of Expat somewhere, please update to 2.4.5. Thank you!

Sebastian Pipping