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@scottyab
Last active January 30, 2024 15:22
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Simple Android signature check. Please note: This was created in 2013, not actively maintained and may not be compatible with the latest Android versions. It's not particularly difficult for an attacker to decompile an .apk, find this tamper check, replace the APP_SIGNATURE with theirs and rebuild (or use method hooking to return true from `vali…
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.pm.PackageInfo;
import android.content.pm.PackageManager;
import android.content.pm.PackageManager.NameNotFoundException;
import android.content.pm.Signature;
public class TamperCheck {
//we store the hash of the signture for a little more protection
private static final String APP_SIGNATURE = "1038C0E34658923C4192E61B16846";
/**
* Query the signature for this application to detect whether it matches the
* signature of the real developer. If it doesn't the app must have been
* resigned, which indicates it may been tampered with.
*
* @param context
* @return true if the app's signature matches the expected signature.
* @throws NameNotFoundException
*/
public boolean validateAppSignature(Context context) throws NameNotFoundException {
PackageInfo packageInfo = context.getPackageManager().getPackageInfo(
getPackageName(), PackageManager.GET_SIGNATURES);
//note sample just checks the first signature
for (Signature signature : packageInfo.signatures) {
// SHA1 the signature
String sha1 = getSHA1(signature.toByteArray());
// check is matches hardcoded value
return APP_SIGNATURE.equals(sha1);
}
return false;
}
//computed the sha1 hash of the signature
public static String getSHA1(byte[] sig) {
MessageDigest digest = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA1");
digest.update(sig);
byte[] hashtext = digest.digest();
return bytesToHex(hashtext);
}
//util method to convert byte array to hex string
public static String bytesToHex(byte[] bytes) {
final char[] hexArray = { '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8',
'9', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F' };
char[] hexChars = new char[bytes.length * 2];
int v;
for (int j = 0; j < bytes.length; j++) {
v = bytes[j] & 0xFF;
hexChars[j * 2] = hexArray[v >>> 4];
hexChars[j * 2 + 1] = hexArray[v & 0x0F];
}
return new String(hexChars);
}
}
@scottyab
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Thanks for answering @tentenponce. Totally agree. I've updated the comment on the gist for extra clarity.

Please note: This was created in 2013, not actively maintained and may not be compatible with the latest Android versions. It's not particularly difficult for an attacker to decompile an .apk, find this tamper check, replace the APP_SIGNATURE with theirs and rebuild (or use method hooking to return true from validateAppSignature()). It'll make the task of running the .apk unsigned or with edited code slightly more time-consuming and hopefully reduce the effectiveness of automated attacker. But it's not bulletproof.

@Android1500
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Android1500 commented Jun 24, 2021

Hey can you please tell me how to get "APP_SIGNATURE" for release build?

@tentenponce
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Hey can you please tell me how to get "APP_SIGNATURE" for release build?

this might help:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5578871/how-to-get-apk-signing-signature

@nvtuan1996
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it is very easy to bypass this check by hooking

@filipatbnp
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hooking what?

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