Assigning Capabilities

The following table, Comparison of capabilities, shows how the capabilities are divided.

Unrestricted	User-grantable (at installation time)	Symbian Signed	Manufacturer approval
60% of APIs	ReadUserData WriteUserData NetworkServices LocalServices UserEnvironment   Note: Implementation may vary between devices.	The user-grantable capabilities +	Symbian Signed capabilities +
		Declarative: Location ReadDeviceData WriteDeviceData PowerMgmt SurroundingsDD ProtServ TrustedUI SwEvent	DRM TCB
		Capability Request Form & Platform approval: DiskAdmin AllFiles CommDD MultiMediaDD NetworkControl

Table: Comparison of capabilities

The following table, Description of capabilities, provides more information on what the separate capabilities mean in practice.

	Capability	Description
1	NetworkServices	This capability is for, e.g., dialing a number or sending a text message.
2	LocalServices	This capability is for sending or receiving information through USB, IR, and point-to-point Bluetooth profiles.
3	ReadUserData	Grants read access to user data. System servers and application engines are free to grant this restriction level to their data.
4	WriteUserData	Grants write access to user data. Again, system servers and application engines are free to grant this restriction level to their data.
5	Location	Grants access to the location of the phone.
6	UserEnvironment	Grants access to live confidential information about the user and his/her immediate environment.
7	PowerMgmt	Grants the right to kill any process in the system or to switch machine state (turn the phone off).
8	MultimediaDD	Controls access to all multimedia device drivers (sound, camera, etc.).
9	ReadDeviceData	Grants read access to sensitive system data.
10	WriteDeviceData	Grants write access to sensitive system data.
11	DRM	Grants access to protected content.
12	TrustedUI	This capability differentiates "normal" applications from "trusted" applications. If a trusted application is displaying something on the screen, a normal application cannot fake it.
13	ProtServ	Grants the right to a server to register with a protected name. Protected names start with an Ò!Ó (exclamation point). The kernel will prevent servers without ProtServ capability from using such a name, and therefore will prevent protected servers from being impersonated.
14	NetworkControl	Grants the right to modify or access network protocol controls.
15	SwEvent	Grants the right to generate and capture software key and pen events.
16	SurroundingsDD	Grants access to logical device drivers that provide input information about the surroundings of the phone.
17	TBC	Grants access to /sys and /recourse directories in the phone.
18	CommDD	Grants access to communication device drivers.
19	DiskAdmin	Grants the right to disk administration functions, such as formatting a drive.
20	AllFiles	Grants visibility to all files in the system and extra write access to files under /private.

Table: Description of capabilities

As described earlier, some capabilities are granted by the device's manufacturer. The manufacturer will use its discretion before granting the capabilities. Usually strong enough business reasoning is sufficient to gain the capabilities.

For a developer to be able to get manufacturer capabilities for the application, it is necessary to contact the manufacturer in question for more details.