SafetyNet provides services for determining whether a URL has been marked as a known threat by Google.
Your app can use this API to determine whether a particular URL has been classified by Google as a known threat. Internally, SafetyNet implements a client for the Safe Browsing Network Protocol v4 developed by Google. Both the client code and the v4 network protocol were designed to preserve users' privacy and keep battery and bandwidth consumption to a minimum. Use this API to take full advantage of Google's Safe Browsing service on Android in the most resource-optimized way, and without implementing its network protocol.
This document explains how to use SafetyNet to check a URL for known threats.
Terms of service
By using the Safe Browsing API, you consent to be bound by the Terms of Service. Please read and understand all applicable terms and policies before accessing the Safe Browsing API.
Request and register an Android API key
To create an API key, follow these steps:
- Go to the Google Developers Console.
- On the upper toolbar, choose Select a project > your-project-name.
- In the search box, enter Safe Browsing APIs; when the Safe Browsing API name appears in the table, select it.
- After the page redisplays, select Enable and then select Go to Credentials.
- When the Add credentials to your project window appears, choose your parameters and then select What credentials do I need?.
- Enter a name for your API key and then select Create API key.
-
Your new API key appears; copy and save this key for future use.
Note: Your API key allows you to perform a URL check 10,000 times each day. The key, in this instance, should just be a hexadecimal string, not part of a URL.
- Select Done to complete the process.
If you need more help, check out the Google Developers Console Help Center.
Initialize the API
To use the Safe Browsing API, you must initialize the API by calling
initSafeBrowsing()
and waiting for it to complete. The
following code snippet provides an example:
Kotlin
Tasks.await(SafetyNet.getClient(this).initSafeBrowsing())
Java
Tasks.await(SafetyNet.getClient(this).initSafeBrowsing());
Note: To minimize the impact of your app's initialization, call
initSafeBrowsing()
as early as possible in your activity's
onResume()
method.
Request a URL check
Your app can use a URL check to determine whether a URL poses a known threat. Some threat types may not be of interest to your particular app. The API allows you to choose which threat types are important for your needs. You can specify multiple known threat types.
Specify threat types of interest
The constants in the SafeBrowsingThreat
class contain the
currently-supported threat types:
package com.google.android.gms.safetynet; public class SafeBrowsingThreat { /** * This threat type identifies URLs of pages that are flagged as containing potentially * harmful applications. */ public static final int TYPE_POTENTIALLY_HARMFUL_APPLICATION = 4; /** * This threat type identifies URLs of pages that are flagged as containing social * engineering threats. */ public static final int TYPE_SOCIAL_ENGINEERING = 5; }
When using the API, you must use constants that aren't marked as deprecated. You add threat type constants as arguments to the API. You may add as many threat type constants as your app requires.
Send the URL check request
The API is agnostic to the scheme used, so you can pass the URL with or without a scheme. For example, both
Kotlin
var url = "https://www.google.com"
Java
String url = "https://www.google.com";
and
Kotlin
var url = "www.google.com"
Java
String url = "www.google.com";
are valid.
Kotlin
SafetyNet.getClient(this).lookupUri( url, SAFE_BROWSING_API_KEY, SafeBrowsingThreat.TYPE_POTENTIALLY_HARMFUL_APPLICATION, SafeBrowsingThreat.TYPE_SOCIAL_ENGINEERING ) .addOnSuccessListener(this) { sbResponse -> // Indicates communication with the service was successful. // Identify any detected threats. if (sbResponse.detectedThreats.isEmpty()) { // No threats found. } else { // Threats found! } } .addOnFailureListener(this) { e: Exception -> if (e is ApiException) { // An error with the Google Play Services API contains some // additional details. Log.d(TAG, "Error: ${CommonStatusCodes.getStatusCodeString(e.statusCode)}") // Note: If the status code, s.statusCode, // is SafetyNetstatusCode.SAFE_BROWSING_API_NOT_INITIALIZED, // you need to call initSafeBrowsing(). It means either you // haven't called initSafeBrowsing() before or that it needs // to be called again due to an internal error. } else { // A different, unknown type of error occurred. Log.d(TAG, "Error: ${e.message}") } }
Java
SafetyNet.getClient(this).lookupUri(url, SAFE_BROWSING_API_KEY, SafeBrowsingThreat.TYPE_POTENTIALLY_HARMFUL_APPLICATION, SafeBrowsingThreat.TYPE_SOCIAL_ENGINEERING) .addOnSuccessListener(this, new OnSuccessListener<SafetyNetApi.SafeBrowsingResponse>() { @Override public void onSuccess(SafetyNetApi.SafeBrowsingResponse sbResponse) { // Indicates communication with the service was successful. // Identify any detected threats. if (sbResponse.getDetectedThreats().isEmpty()) { // No threats found. } else { // Threats found! } } }) .addOnFailureListener(this, new OnFailureListener() { @Override public void onFailure(@NonNull Exception e) { // An error occurred while communicating with the service. if (e instanceof ApiException) { // An error with the Google Play Services API contains some // additional details. ApiException apiException = (ApiException) e; Log.d(TAG, "Error: " + CommonStatusCodes .getStatusCodeString(apiException.getStatusCode())); // Note: If the status code, apiException.getStatusCode(), // is SafetyNetstatusCode.SAFE_BROWSING_API_NOT_INITIALIZED, // you need to call initSafeBrowsing(). It means either you // haven't called initSafeBrowsing() before or that it needs // to be called again due to an internal error. } else { // A different, unknown type of error occurred. Log.d(TAG, "Error: " + e.getMessage()); } } });
Read the URL check response
Using the returned
SafetyNetApi.SafeBrowsingResponse
object, call its
getDetectedThreats()
method, which returns a list of
SafeBrowsingThreat
objects. If the returned list is empty,
the API didn't detect any known threats. If the list isn't empty, however,
call
getThreatType()
on each element in the list to determine
which known threats the API detected.
Shut down your Safe Browsing session
If your app won't be using the Safe Browsing API for a prolonged period of
time, check all the necessary URLs within your app and then shut down your
Safe Browsing session using the
shutdownSafeBrowsing()
method:
Kotlin
SafetyNet.getClient(this).shutdownSafeBrowsing()
Java
SafetyNet.getClient(this).shutdownSafeBrowsing();
We recommend that you call shutdownSafeBrowsing()
in your
activity's onPause()
method, and that you
call
initSafeBrowsing()
in your activity's
onResume()
method. However, you should
make sure that initSafeBrowsing()
has finished executing before
calling
lookupUri()
. By making sure that your session is always
fresh, you'll help reduce internal errors in your app.
Suggested warning language
To see suggested warning language, see the Safe Browsing API Developer's Guide.