How is the verification of software performed?
Is the verification done only by the author of the sofware or the version of the software itself or does flathub verify the software.
Example application vokoscreenng as of June-2025 shows version 4.5.2 on flathub but their web site
vokoscreenNG-Download shows version 4.5.0 as the latest version not 4.5.2
Verification is done by the developer of the software. The general way it works is this: the developer has to generate a key for his app and place this key on his website in a specific app.
Flathub then checks if the key exists to prove if an app is verified.
Well, the Flathub download seems to use the 4.5.2 tag from the source. And the website itself refers to Flathub as the Flatpak install source.
So maybe the website just wasn’t updated for a simple patch release.
Flathub is not involed in the verification of an application? How is the blue star activated for an application ? It cannot be just the devloperas flathub must do some verification on the developer to allow the blue star to be valid??
The software from vokoscreenNG specifically show April -2205 version and it is now June-2025 and it is still 4.5.0 on the offcial developer site, vokoscreenNG-Download
, but no version 4.5.2. Where is the version 4.5.2 on flathub coming from and how can this descrepency be corrected from Flathub ?
Flathub itself provides a key. This key needs to be placed on the website of the application by the developer. If Flathub finds this key on the website, it considers the app to verified.
In the case of software hosted on GitHub, it works a bit differently, as the developer uses his GitHub account to verify the software on the Flathub website.
In any case, the verification is done by the developer itself.
Apart from that, when an app is submitted to Flathub, the Flathub teams checks the permissions and manifest for obvious errors before approval.
That version 4.5.2 is coming from an version tag on the official repository of the software. And the developer itself updated the Flathub version.
So there is no “discrepancy” to be corrected by Flathub. If anything, the website is a bit behind.
Your best action would be to ask the developer of the app about this.
But if your statement is correct “when an app is submitted to Flathub, the Flathub teams checks the permissions and manifest for obvious errors before approval.”
I would think a version different would be a basic check for an application on flathub.
I have placed a comment on github as they did not accept the issue.
Please consider that Flathub has now around 3.000 applications on its repository, many of which having regular updates.
Expecting that Flathub does a check if the version number of an release matches the one on the website for every update of every app is just unrealistic.
“Obvious errors” are overly broad permissions, patches not being upstreamed or bad practices while building the code with the manifest, etc…
That the version is the current one or that the website itself reflects the current version is responsibility of the developer, not of Flathub.
Most importantly, for verification we make sure that they have the correct app id. As that locks down which website can be used to verify.
