Knox Manage API installs wrong app

Environment

• Knox Manage

Overview

When you use Knox Manage APIs (such as the sendDeviceControlForInstallApp API) to install apps, the system may install an incorrect app even when you provide the correct package name. For instance, when you attempt to install com.samsung.test, but the system installs com.samsung.test.sandbox instead.

Cause

Knox Manage uses a LIKE query when searching for apps by package name. A LIKE query performs partial string matching, treating your search input as a prefix pattern (similar to com.samsung.test*). Instead of requiring an exact match, the search finds any package names that start with the specified string. Knox Manage then automatically selects the app with the highest version number from these search results.

For example, when you request installation of com.samsung.test, the LIKE query returns all apps whose package names start with those characters, including both com.samsung.test and com.samsung.test.sandbox. If com.samsung.test.sandbox has version 2.0 while com.samsung.test has version 1.5, the system then installs the sandbox app instead of the intended one.

Workaround

To resolve the Knox Manage app installation issue, you can either:

• Modify package names: Change the package name of one of the conflicting applications to remove the shared prefix. For example, rename com.samsung.test.sandbox to com.samsung.sandbox.test to remove the overlapping prefix.
• Adjust version numbers: Ensure the incorrect app has a lower version number than your target app. For example, if com.samsung.test.sandbox version 2.0 conflicts with com.samsung.test version 1.5, either downgrade the sandbox app to version 1.0 or upgrade your target application to version 2.5.