Null Pointer in Custom Privacy

[Dev4Mod]

This problem recently appeared with the addition of Custom Privacy. A null pointer is thrown from the native code when entering the onCreate method of the ContactInfo Activity. Strangely, this occurs only on some (stock) ROMs, but due to the number of affected people, I decided to investigate further.

I looked at my code and didn't find anything that would generate this error; moreover, the Java code itself would throw a NullPointerException if any object were null, but this does not happen, and the error occurs in the native code. Therefore, I assumed that the error was in the LSPosed hook; it could be an update in the Android ART. Usually, you can downgrade by executing:

pm uninstall com.google.android.art
reboot

Since I cannot reproduce the problem, I cannot test this hypothesis. Another possibility could be Shamiko, which alters some cache functions of LSPosed to avoid detection. The error thrown refers to a cache that was deleted from the JIT; this might have something in common, but I can only test it on the affected devices to see if Shamiko is present and if it is the cause of the problem.

Solution:
As an alternative, I just released an update in the latest commit to change the Xposed hook to use the activity lifecycle. This allows me to monitor when the activity starts and insert the privacy button.