Blackberry permissions — what does “trusted application status” refer to?

Question

For some device users, on startup they are presented with the following permissions dialog

"Would you like to grant AppX trusted application status?"

The user says yes and the app runs fine. But what does "trusted application status" mean? This seems really ambiguous, most permission dialogs refer to making a http message, accessing contact information and the like.

Final Question
Does "trusted application status" refer to accessing a specific API or a specific permission setting on the client devices?

I'd like to know the root cause of this since if it's an API access issue, I might exclude those calls from the app.

Answer 1

I was holding off answering because I read something on RIM's site that answered your question. Alas I haven't been able to re-locate it yet.

The question can be thought of as a macro for some of the other permission questions. If the user answers negative, then any subsequent access to an API that needs user permission will cause the normal prompt. Answering affirmative will allow a subset of common permissions. If I remember correctly these include access to location and PIM data and access to the network. It is different from the programing API signing key issue. An application signed for access to PIM data will still need user permission to access the data, unless installed from the BES with appropriate permission.

Regardless of the original answer, the user can change permissions later by editing application and/or module permissions.

Found it! This video talks about Security Prompts.

Trusted applications are available from OS 4.5 and have all permission set to ALLOW except those that are set to DENY by default.

Answer 2

This is a general message it is not related to accessing secured API's, if you were accessing secured apis your app will fail to run with a Security Exception (and you need to sign your app to make use of them).

The only way to avoid that message in first app launch is to sign your application with the optional certificates (you must register as developer to get those certificates and to have access to the signature tool).

Answer 3

Richard, i've been under the impression that what it does is set the permision on the app to your "Default Permission". You have on your device "default permissions" which you can change by going to Settings -> Security -> Application Permissions -> Menu -> Edit Default Permissions. Thats what "trusted" means. Otherwise you will be prompted for all security options.