

Ask HN: How to trace the pirated versions of a mobile app? - abharadwaj

Hello,<p>Is there a way to find out if there are pirated/unauthorized installations of our mobile app (not downloaded from the App stores)?<p>More specifically is it possible to find out how many times our mobile app was installed and is in use when it doesn't send out any analytics report of the installation/launch on different devices/users?<p>Thanks much,
Ashwini
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nekitamo
Yes. If you're on Android, do a checksum of your classes.dex file. If you use
the Android LVL, chances are the cracker will patch your app, and thereby
change the checksum of classes.dex. You can use the checksum to then decide
whether or not the app is pirated, and report it to your servers.

For iOS, you can check if the app is pirated by seeing whether or not the
cryptid flag is set in the LC_ENCRYPTION_INFO of the MACH-O header, and then
report it to your servers if it's not.

