Technical Note: Agent Attempts to Download on Android Phones

Version:  All

Issue:  Agent attempts to download on Android phones. 

Upon connecting to the Network Sentry Captive Portal, the host's web browser provides information called the User Agent ID. Network Sentry uses the information in this string for policy determination (such as endpoint compliance).

Chrome for Android has a feature called "Request Desktop Site." With this feature enabled, the User Agent ID is altered and doesn't include the information necessary to identify the device as an Android. Consequently, Network Sentry sees the Android as a different operating system (due to other attributes in the User Agent string) and attempts to push the agent to the device.

The string can be viewed in the apache access_log. Alternatively, if the phone is able to access the internet by other means, the User Agent ID can be identified by browsing to the following URL: