Custota

Custota is an app for installing Android A/B OTA updates from a custom OTA server. When paired with avbroot, it can be used to seamlessly install OTAs signed by a custom key.

Custota is installed via a Magisk/KernelSU module so that it can run as a system app.

Features

• Supports Android 13 and newer
• Supports pausing, resuming, and cancelling updates
• Supports skipping optional post-install scripts to speed up updates
• Never communicates with any server besides the configured OTA server
• OTA updates safely continue running even if the app crashes or is uninstalled during the operation

Limitations

• The device must support A/B updates.
  • This notably excludes all Samsung devices.
• Incremental updates are not supported.
  • It would take minimal work to add support, but there's currently no tooling to generate an incremental OTA from two full OTAs.
• Pre-downloading an update to install later is not supported.
  • Custota runs update_engine in streaming mode, which downloads and installs OTAs at the same time.
• The stock OS' Settings app on Pixel devices always launches the builtin OTA updater.
  • These shortcuts in the Settings app are loaded from GmsCore (part of Google Play Services) via a mechanism called "settings slices" and cannot be overridden. Apps that launch the OTA updater via the standard android.settings.SYSTEM_UPDATE_SETTINGS intent will show a prompt to pick between Custota or the builtin OTA updater.

Usage

1. Follow the instructions in the OTA server section to set up a webserver and generate the metadata files for the OTA zips.

   Alternatively, Custota supports installing OTAs from a local directory instead of downloading them from an OTA server. When using a local directory, the expected directory structure is exactly the same as how it would be with a server.

2. If you're installing OTA updates signed with a custom key, follow the instructions in the Custom Verification Key section.

3. Download the latest version from the releases page. To verify the digital signature, see the verifying digital signatures section.

4. Install the Custota module in Magisk/KernelSU.

5. Reboot and open Custota.

6. Set the OTA server URL to point to your OTA server.

7. That's it!

Once the OTA server URL is configured, Custota will automatically check for updates periodically. The checks can be turned off completely or extended to automatically install the updates as well.

To reduce battery usage, the timing of the periodic update checks is controlled by Android. They run at most once every 6 hours.

OTA server

Custota only requires a basic webserver capable of serving static files and supporting the HTTP Range header. Any standard webserver, like Apache, Nginx, or Caddy, will do the trick. For testing, Caddy is very useful because it can serve files from a directory without setting up any config files:

caddy file-server --access-log --listen :8080 --root /path/to/ota/directory

The following static files need to be hosted:

• OTA zip
  • The filename can be anything.
• Csig ("Custota signature") file
  • This is a file that contains a digital signature of the metadata sections of the OTA. This allows Custota to securely read the OTA's metadata without downloading the entire zip.
  • The filename can be anything, but is commonly <ota filename>.csig.
• Update info JSON
  • This contains the path or URL to the .zip and .csig files.
  • The filename must be <device codename>.json.

To generate the csig and update info files:

1. Download custota-tool from the release page. Binaries are provided for Linux, Windows, and Mac. To compile from source instead, follow the instructions here.

2. Generate the csig file from the OTA zip. The keypair that was used to sign the OTA can also be used to create the csig.

   ./custota-tool \
       gen-csig \
       --input path/to/ota.zip \
       --key path/to/ota.key \
       --cert path/to/ota.crt

   If the OTA was signed with a different keypair, use --cert-verify to specify the certificate for verifying the OTA. This is not needed if the OTA and csig are signed with the same keypair.

   The csig will be saved to <input>.csig. -o/--output can be used to specify a different output path.

   If the private key is encrypted, an interactive prompt for the passphrase will be shown. For automation, see --help for information on providing the passphrase via an environment variable or a file.

3. Create the update info JSON file.

   ./custota-tool \
       gen-update-info \
       --file <device codename>.json \
       --location <ota filename>.zip

   The location can be set to:

   • A relative path (computed starting from the directory containing the update info file). This is the easy option if the update info, OTA, and csig files are all stored in the same directory tree. Subdirectories are supported.
   • A full URL. This is useful if the OTA and csig files are stored on different servers (eg. cloud object storage).

   By default, the csig location is set to <location>.csig. This can be changed with the -c/--csig-location option.

   If needed, this file can be easily edited by hand.

HTTPS

To use a self-signed certificate or a custom CA certificate, it needs to be installed into the system CA trust store. To generate a module that does this, run the following command and then flash the generated module zip.

custota-tool gen-cert-module -o system-ca-certs.zip /path/to/cert.pem

Custom verification key

Android's update_engine verifies OTA signatures against certificates contained within /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip. If your OTAs were signed by a custom key via avbroot, make sure it was done with avbroot 3.0.0 or newer, which added support for patching the system partition's copy of otacerts.zip (instead of just the recovery partition's copy).

Permissions

• ACCESS_CACHE_FILESYSTEM (automatically granted by system app permissions)
  • Needed to store temporary OTA files.
• ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE (automatically granted at install time)
  • Needed on Android 14+ for unmetered network background run condition.
• FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SPECIAL_USE (automatically granted at install time)
  • Needed to run the OTA update service in the background.
• INTERNET (automatically granted at install time)
  • Needed to communicate with the OTA server. Custota does not and will never communicate with any server outside of the configured OTA server. There are no ads, analytics, or any sort of tracking.
• MANAGE_CARRIER_OEM_UNLOCK_STATE, MANAGE_USER_OEM_UNLOCK_STATE, READ_OEM_UNLOCK_STATE (automatically granted by system app permissions)
  • Needed to show the bootloader unlock status.
• POST_NOTIFICATIONS (must be granted by the user)
  • Android requires a notification to be shown in order for the updater service to reliably run in the background.
• REBOOT (automatically granted by system app permissions)
  • Needed to reboot the device when the user explicitly presses the reboot button in Custota's notification after an update is installed.
• RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED (automatically granted at install time)
  • Needed to schedule periodic update checks.
  • Needed to show the OTA cleanup notification on the reboot following an OTA update.
• WAKE_LOCK (automatically granted at install time)
  • Needed to keep the CPU awake while an update is being installed.

Advanced features

Debug mode

Custota has hidden debug options that can be enabled or disabled by long pressing the version number.

Logs

To access the Custota's logs, enable debug mode and press Open log directory to open the log directory in the system file manager (DocumentsUI). Or alternatively, browse to /sdcard/Android/com.chiller3.custota/files manually.

• check.log, install.log, and revert.log: Logs for the last check/install/revert operation.
• crash.log: Logs for the last crash.
• /data/local/tmp/custota.log: Logs for the SELinux changes made during boot.
  • This log cannot be saved to the normal log directory because it is written prior to the user unlocking the device for the first time after booting.

When reporting bugs, please include the log files as it is extremely helpful for identifying what might be going wrong. The logs should contain no sensitive information besides the OTA URLs.

(To monitor update_engine's own logs, run adb logcat '*:S' update_engine.)

Reinstallation

For testing, Custota can allow the current OS version (i.e. matching build fingerprint) to be reinstalled. To do so, enable debug mode and then enable the Allow reinstall toggle. Make sure to not enable Automatically install updates at the same time or else the current OS version will be reinstalled after every reboot because it's always seen as a valid update.

Reverting an update

Normally, an update can be cancelled by presing the Cancel button in the notification while it is being downloaded or installed. However, if the opportunity to do so was missed and the update has already been installed, the update can be reverted by enabling debug mode and pressing the Revert completed update option. This stops the bootloader slot from being switched on reboot. Note that an update can only be reverted if the device hasn't been rebooted yet.

How it works

The A/B update process in Android is handled by a builtin component called update_engine. The engine is used both for sideloading OTA updates when booted into recovery mode and for regular OTA updates while booted into Android. It is responsible for checking the signature of payload.bin inside the OTA zip against /system/etc/security/otacerts.zip, verifying existing partition checksums (for incremental updates), and then installing the payload. It also handles the download process when used in the streaming mode, which is always requested by Custota. Custota itself is responsible for the other parts, such as checking for updates, verifying compatibility, and preventing downgrades (which could cause the device to be unbootable due to Android Verified Boot's rollback index mechanism).

In order for Custota to talk to update_engine or even discover that the component exists, the SELinux policy must be modified to allow this access. The module ships with a script that makes these modifications (non-persistently) on boot. This script is the only time root access is used.

There are two parts to the SELinux changes:

1. There's a custota-selinux native executable that performs all of the policy modifications. It takes the untrusted_app domain and makes a copy of it as custota_app. Then, it adds the relevant rules to allow only custota_app to access update_engine. The domain is copied from untrusted_app instead of the normal priv_app domain that is assigned to system apps because Custota does not require any of the additional privileges that would have been granted by priv_app.

2. An seapp_contexts rule is added to /system/etc/selinux/plat_seapp_contexts, which actually sets up the association between Custota (app package ID: com.chiller3.custota) and the new SELinux domain (custota_app).

These changes help limit Custota's privileges to exactly what is needed and avoids potentially increasing the attack surface via other apps.

TLS trust store

Depending on the Android version, different components use different CA trust stores for validating certificates.

Component	Trust store
Custota (Android >= 14)	apex
Custota (Android < 14)	system
update_engine (Android >= 14 QPR2)	system
update_engine (Android < 14 QPR2)	system_google

Custota's module automatically bind mounts trust store directories on boot so that update_engine will use the same trust store that regular apps, including Custota, use. This way, there will never be a situation where, for example, Custota can download the OTA, but update_engine cannot.

Android version	Bind mount
< 14	system -> system_google
>= 14 but < 14 QPR2	apex -> system_google
>= 14 QPR2	apex -> system

File formats

OTA zip

Custota uses Android's standard A/B OTA zip format with no additional changes.

csig (Custota signature)

The csig file contains a signed JSON message of the form:

{
    "version": 2,
    "files": [
        {
            "name": "payload_metadata.bin",
            "offset": 3954,
            "size": 148569,
            "digest": "d13b75ba16ab6bcd992b3e8d0f1964b3f4f65c9c39022afe684dd48312079eb7"
        },
        {
            "name": "payload.bin",
            "offset": 3954,
            "size": 2344888291,
            "digest": "62b73ad358b06eebd186fa7c9895ef40bfdaf97060ae572984783dfa91397fb3"
        },
        // ...
    ],
    "vbmeta_digest": "61a7175e883636fb6a4a18139746f7d3ffbf7f5a53e9a4ced6f560a9820ccdb4"
}

This is a copy of the ota-property-files data in META-INF/com/android/metadata.pb, except with an additional field for the SHA256 digest of each file entry's data. The file intentionally includes no other data because it's only meant to allow secure parsing of OTA metadata without downloading the entire file and verifying the whole-file signature.

Although it's never possible for a payload.bin signed by an untrusted key to be installed, csig prevents a new OTA's metadata from being attached to an old OTA's validly-signed payload for downgrade protection. This is because the csig info includes the digest for payload_properties.txt, which contains payload's own digests. This forms a strong tie between the csig and the payload.

The actual csig file is a DER-encoded CMS signature containing the JSON structure above in its encapsulated data. To display the encapsulated data, run:

openssl cms -verify -in <csig file> -inform DER -binary -noverify

To verify the csig's signature against a specific certificate, run:

openssl cms -verify -in <csig file> -inform DER -binary -CAfile <cert file>

Update info

The update info file is a JSON file of the form:

{
    "version": 2,
    "full": {
        "location_ota": "ota.zip",
        "location_csig": "ota.zip.csig"
    }
}

The file contains no metadata besides the location of the OTA and csig files. Each location field can be either a relative path (computed starting from the update info file's parent directory/URL) or a full URL.

Update process

When Custota checks for updates, it will:

1. Download the update info file.
2. Download the csig file listed in the location_csig field.
3. Verify the signature of the csig. All further downloads of file entries in the csig are verified against the listed digests.
4. Download the metadata.pb entry and validate the fields to determine if the OTA is suitable for installation on the device.
5. Show the update prompt if the OTA fingerprint does not match the running system and the security patch level is newer than the running system.

When the user chooses to install an update, Custota will repeat all but the last step above and then:

1. Download the payload_metadata.bin entry (payload.bin's header), write it to /data/ota_package/payload_metadata.bin, and ask update_engine to verify that the listed partition operations are suitable to be performed on the current device.
2. Download care_map.pb and write it to /data/ota_package/care_map.pb. This is unused for devices with virtual A/B partitioning (ie. snapuserd).
3. Download payload_properties.txt, parse the payload digests, and ask update_engine to download and install payload.bin.

Verifying digital signatures

Both the zip file and the APK contained within are digitally signed.

Verifying zip file signature

To verify the digital signatures of the downloads, follow the steps here.

Verifying apk signature

First, extract the apk from the zip and then run:

apksigner verify --print-certs system/priv-app/com.chiller3.custota/app-release.apk

Then, check that the SHA-256 digest of the APK signing certificate is:

35749a70d9b855fe1a6262537db529fabc0ea24d1115ceb82835bf5a589578ae

Building from source

Building app and module

Make sure the Rust toolchain is installed. Rust must be installed via rustup because it provides the required Android toolchains:

rustup target add aarch64-linux-android
rustup target add x86_64-linux-android

cargo-android must also be installed.

Then, Custota can be built like most other Android apps using Android Studio or the gradle command line.

To build the APK:

./gradlew assembleDebug

To build the Magisk/KernelSU module zip (which automatically runs the assembleDebug task if needed):

./gradlew zipDebug

The output file is written to app/build/distributions/debug/. The APK will be signed with the default autogenerated debug key.

To create a release build with a specific signing key, set up the following environment variables:

export RELEASE_KEYSTORE=/path/to/keystore.jks
export RELEASE_KEY_ALIAS=alias_name

read -r -s RELEASE_KEYSTORE_PASSPHRASE
read -r -s RELEASE_KEY_PASSPHRASE
export RELEASE_KEYSTORE_PASSPHRASE
export RELEASE_KEY_PASSPHRASE

and then build the release zip:

./gradlew zipRelease

Building custota-tool

Make sure the Rust toolchain is installed. Then run:

cd custota-tool
cargo build --release

The output binary is written to target/release/custota-tool.

Debug builds work too, but they will run significantly slower (in the sha256 computations) due to compiler optimizations being turned off.

Android cross-compilation

To cross-compile for Android, install cargo-android and use the cargo android wrapper. To make a release build for aarch64, run:

cargo android build --release --target aarch64-linux-android

Contributing

Bug fix and translation pull requests are welcome and much appreciated!

If you are interested in implementing a new feature and would like to see it included in Custota, please open an issue to discuss it first. I intend for Custota to be as simple and low-maintenance as possible, so I am not too inclined to add new features, but I could be convinced otherwise.

License

Custota is licensed under GPLv3. Please see LICENSE for the full license text.