Impact of Samsung Knox SDK Version Upgrade

What is Samsung Knox SDK?

Samsung provides a comprehensive set of Knox SDKs for developers to deeply integrate their applications to the Knox Platform for exclusive security and management features. Scalefusion uses the Knox SDK to provide enhanced corporate device management functionalities. Knox SDKs are constantly updated to add more management functionalities.

What is different in Knox SDK v3.x Update?

Normal updates to Knox SDK are seamless and usually do not have any backward compatibility issues. However with Knox SDK v3.0 there are some changes that will cause the applications like Scalefusion to be updated for the Knox features to work as before. The changes are:

• Changes in Namespaces: This means that Scalefusion client has to update their client code to be compatible with new Knox namespaces.
• Discontinued Support for Android OS 4.2 Devices: The support for Knox on Android OS 4.2 has been removed.

When is the EOL for current Knox SDKs?

The end-of-life date communicated is 30th June 2019.

What are the Potential Impacts of this Update?

• Discontinued Support for Android 4.2 (Jellybean) Devices: The new Knox SDK does not work on Android 4.2 devices and below and hence Knox Features will not work for Android OS 4.2 (Jellybean) and below.
• Devices with Android OS 4.3 and above: We do not have exact information on what will be the impacts but basing on the communication, it is indicated that applications using older SDKs may behave inconsistently. We are not sure on how the new Knox version will be updated on devices, but we expect that a firmware update post June 2019 may cause this.

What are the Action Items for IT Admins/Customers?

1. Android OS 4.2 and below: 
   1. For Devices that are already setup, there might be no impact of the new Scalefusion Release. However, this cannot be guaranteed at this point of time. So please test it on selected devices before rolling out en-masse.
   2. We would recommend to slowly phase out your existing Android OS 4.2 (Jellybean) devices from inventory and If you are planning to procure new Samsung Android OS 4.2 (Jellybean) devices and below, we suggest updating your device inventory.
2. Android OS 4.3 and above: We recommend updating the Devices to latest Scalefusion Release. We suggest updating in small batches to test the new update before you rollout to all the devices.

Please feel free to reach out to us at support@scalefusion.com for any further information and we will be glad to support.