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Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

pocketables.com

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Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#121

Post by eropple »

gilgoomesh wrote: post #21

If you're an iOS app developer... The correct way to check if your app has been pirated requires two steps: 1) You must be running on a jailbroken system. Check this by trying to read from outside the sandbox. 2) Check if your app's signature is invalid. Checking this is fairly involved. Look around for code. If either of these two are false, then you've not been pirated (point (2) will be true when your app is check…

(and additionally checked an irrelevant point by checking for Installous)

Nit: I'm almost certain that they checked for MobileSubstrate.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#122

Post by mambodog »

pooriaazimi wrote: post #66

I don't have this particular app, but I have Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English (5th ed.), also by Enfour, Inc. that I bought last year for, I don't remember, $50 I think (at the time, now they've dropped the price). The latest version displays "I'm a software thief" as a notification, says to run the app in safe mode and then crashes. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/longman-dictionary-contempor... Oh, and…

I've got Collins Gem Malay English dictionary, which requests Twitter access, then when denied throws up a dialog saying 'Run in Safe Mode!' and crashes.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#123

Post by Groxx »

This is why I think every API which gives an app access to your data / identity / etc should have a way to fake it, and track whatever it does. Using a different account is sufficient, but what about when things are integrated, like system-wide Twitter or Facebook? Just give us a black-hole option for such things - return no contacts, send no messages, and let us see what it tried to do. You'll have a lot less abuse when it's easy to find.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#124

Post by gee_totes »

biot wrote: post #89
mikeash wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is exactly what I was trying to imply. Apple and Apple fans are constantly telling us that the walled garden is four our own good. If Apple doesn't take severe action here, then they'll be all but admitting that our protection has nothing to do with it.

A walled garden may do a perfect job of keeping rabbits from eating crops. Yet despite completely fulfilling its purpose, it still can't prevent vegetables from rotting.

I always thought it was so none of your neighbors, not just rabbits, could get to the crops.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#125

Post by cowpewter »

confluence wrote: post #116
kstenerud wrote: post #19

Most likely, their "piracy detector" was nothing more than checking for "MobileSubstrate" (a library present in all jailbroken phones) under the silly assumption that jailbroken = pirated. Booby trapped software is NEVER a good idea. No matter how clever you think you are, you're not clever enough.

Well he didn't disable the app and he also didn't say something that wasn't technically true. > How about we all stop using pirated iOS apps? I promise to stop. I really will. #softwarepirateconfession If you have a jailbroken iPhone, odds are that you did so to pirate "iOS apps" and are hence a "software pirate". That sentence looks like it was carefully crafted to be correct and generalizable. This is probably not…

I have a jailbroken iPhone, because I want SBSettings and Winterboard. That's it. I want to be able to skin my phone the way I want (it's mine, after all), and I want quick access to things like brightness and wifi on/off that doesn't require jumping through multiple menus in the Settings app.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#126

Post by DHowett »

gilgoomesh wrote: post #21

If you're an iOS app developer... The correct way to check if your app has been pirated requires two steps: 1) You must be running on a jailbroken system. Check this by trying to read from outside the sandbox. 2) Check if your app's signature is invalid. Checking this is fairly involved. Look around for code. If either of these two are false, then you've not been pirated (point (2) will be true when your app is check…

You can normally read from outside the sandbox on iOS: there are data in /usr/lib and /usr/share that are important to libraries shipped as part of the dyld cache (also incidentally found outside of the app container.)

The main question is: what exactly lays outside the sandbox? A good thing to search for could be Cydia, but there are alternative package managers. MobileSubstrate isn't a sure bet either, but I suppose it's a far cry safer than Cydia. An additional method could be trying to map a page you can both write to and execute, which should fail unless specific kernel patches indicative of a jailbreak have been applied (or you're a webview with Nitro enabled.)

The best method, however, is to not care, because if you do it's for the sake of either tracking/analytics or screwing over your users.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#127

Post by DHowett »

gilgoomesh wrote: post #48
mikecane wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does checking for those things slow down the load time of the app? Wouldn't that punish paid users?

The files you're reading are already cached by the OS (to perform the exact same work). The only processing involved is computing a hashes and a small RSA encryption. Less than half a millisecond?

You could also use access(), which will not incur any file reading overhead or exchange of encryption keys.

Re: Dictionary app auto-posts piracy accusations on users’ Twitter accounts

#128

Post by praptak »

troels wrote: post #110
praptak wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The armchair lawyer in me wonders if someone could get a libel/defamation suit going because of this. As a professional certified internet laywer I'd also add impersonation.

Eh .. off topic, but why did you write lawyer with Y and W switched around? You emphasised it, so I assume it was on purpose?

A silly variation on the IANAL disclaimer.
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