Knox Service Plugin: Everything you need to know

In 2019, Samsung announced its support for Android OEMConfig by launching the Knox Service Plugin. The main purpose of Knox Service Plugin was to offer its customers immediate access to existing and new features of Knox Platform for Enterprise. Today, Knox Service Plugin offers services to all Samsung devices, with plans to extend its services to other Samsung devices, wearables and displays.

So, what is Knox Service Plugin?

Samsung’s Knox Service Plugin (KSP) is a solution that allows UEM customers to access Knox Platform for Enterprise’s (KPE) latest features right after its release, through a preferred UEM solution vendor like Hexnode UEM. KSP’s automatic deployment grants IT admins access to Knox’s latest features on the day of launch, rather than waiting for their UEM to integrate the features. Hexnode UEM offers integration with Knox Service Plugin that allows users to experience over-the-air deployment and updates in Samsung devices.

Samsung Knox Validated Program: Fine-tune your mobility strategies with Samsung and Hexnode

KSP is Samsung’s OEMConfig app that use managed configurations to configure OEM-specific device features. With OEMConfig, you can create and push configurations to apps through an XML schema file in an app on Google Play, meaning any UEM in compliance with the OEMConfig standard can set up KSP.

Pre-requisites of Knox Service Plugin

• Samsung devices that support Knox and run Android 9.0 (Knox 3.2.1) or higher — or Android 8.0 (Knox 3.0) or higher for devices enrolled as Device Owner.
• Set up your devices using the following Android Enterprise deployments: Managed Device (Device Owner), Work Profile (Profile Owner), and fully managed with a work profile

• A valid Knox Platform for Enterprise (KPE) license for each of the devices managed with KSP.

• • If you want to deploy premium policies, Knox’s Premium license provides advanced security features, kiosks, and device customization.
• For the KSP implementation of OEMConfig, you must support:

• A Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solution that supports advanced app restrictions, feedback channel, allows OEMConfig app customization and enables auto update setting.

Featured resource

Hexnode Android Management Solution

Get started with Hexnode’s Android Management solution to improve efficiency, increase productivity, save time and overhead costs of managing your corporate devices.

Download datasheet

How does it work?

The Knox Service Plugin deployment process involves the following steps:

1. Samsung releases the latest Knox Service Plugin Agent to the Google Play Store.
2. From your Hexnode UEM console, go to +Add Apps > Managed Google Apps, search for Knox Service Plugin, and select it to add KSP to the Hexnode app repository. Then, from a policy, go to Android > App Management > App Configurations to configure it.
3. The Hexnode UEM console deploys the applicable Knox features and policies using OEMConfig.
4. Set up policies in the form of Managed app configurations, which are saved and published to the managed enterprise devices.
5. The app settings and configurations are summarized into three categories; Device Wide Policies, Work Profile Policies (Profile Owner) and Common Configurations. You can check out Knox’s example schema to know more about the configurations.
6. When a user’s device is being provisioned, Hexnode UEM invokes the managed Google Play Store, installs KSP and pushes the managed configuration to the device.
7. After installation, the KSP app runs in the background on the device and applies the Knox policies and returns the result of the configuration process.
8. Samsung releases KSP updates every month, and gets updated automatically. So, devices with existing versions of KSP would receive the latest features as well, without the need to manually update the app.

How Long Does It Take for KSP Policies to Apply?

One question IT admins ask often: once a policy is pushed, how soon does it actually take effect on the device?

With Knox Service Plugin, propagation isn’t instant. Configuration changes typically apply within 1 to 2 days, depending on server traffic, device connectivity, and Google’s backend processing.

Here’s the flow: your UEM sends the schema data to Google. Google then delivers the managed configuration to the device. Once received, the KSP agent applies the updated policy and reports the result back through the feedback channel.

If there’s no functional change from the previous configuration, the agent skips the update entirely — so you won’t see unnecessary re-application of unchanged policies.

What if changes don’t apply within 2 days?

That’s usually a sign to check device connectivity, confirm the device is enrolled correctly, or reach out to support.

For testing, admins can enable Debug mode within KSP. This surfaces real-time logs on the device UI, confirming whether the managed configuration was received and processed correctly — useful before rolling a policy out fleet-wide.

Building this verification step into your deployment checklist helps avoid support tickets caused by simple propagation delays rather than actual configuration errors.

What are the key features of Knox Service Plugin?

With the Knox Service Plugin, you can configure and manage various Samsung device features:

Benefits

Samsung Knox Service Plugin provide customers access to Knox’s existing and new features as soon as they are launched commercially. Apart from this, the other benefits include:

• Automatic Firmware Over-The-Air updates on enterprise Samsung devices.
• Availability of all KPE features, regardless of which UEM you choose.

Knox Service Plugin helps UEM partners:

• Remove the need for a separate app or months of development time to integrate new features to the UEM.
• With managed configurations, UEM providers can roll out new features as soon as they’re released, with minimal development from their side. This minimizes the development cost, while ensuring that customers receive the latest updates.

When Should You Use KSP Instead of Native UEM Controls?

KSP is powerful, but it isn’t meant to replace your UEM’s built-in Android controls.

As a general rule: use your UEM’s native, standard Android Enterprise policies for common tasks — think basic restrictions, Wi-Fi, or app management. Reserve KSP specifically for Knox-exclusive capabilities unavailable anywhere else, like DualDAR encryption, VPN chaining, or Common Criteria mode.

Why does this distinction matter?

Native UEM policies are typically more stable, better tested across OS versions, and easier to troubleshoot. KSP configurations, since they mirror Samsung’s own schema updates, can shift with each monthly release.

Layering KSP only where it adds genuine value — rather than duplicating settings your UEM already manages — keeps policies cleaner and reduces the chance of conflicting configurations on a device.

A practical example:

If you only need to block the camera or manage Wi-Fi networks, Hexnode’s native Android restrictions already cover that. But if you need Samsung DeX customization, Knox Premium password policies, or advanced VPN behavior, that’s where KSP steps in.

This hybrid approach — using native Android controls for standard settings and KSP for Knox-exclusive capabilities — is a practical way to organize Samsung Knox management, helping IT admins avoid redundant policy layers.

Knox Service Plugin capabilities with Hexnode UEM