How to protect android application from .apk backup applications

Question

How to prevent an Android application from applications that can backup the .apk file.

Applications such as astro file manager allow the user to do this, menu: tools → backup more information here and you can create a backup copy of any installed apk on sdcard.

Subsequently, I can rename it to .zip and extract it and easily steal DRAWABLE / ASSET from this application.

My question is: how do I protect my application from such a backup?

Answer 1

No, as far as I know, a fully functional method to stop this. But even in this case, I always wondered before trying to try whether I really would need it if someone tried to steal something from my application. I make every effort to ensure the security of any data.

Answer 2

As the answers say, this is not so. If you configured the application to use the old copy protection on the market (the checkbox still exists), you need a padded phone to read the APK. In addition, I recently saw an application (ICE, in case of emergency) that I could not make a backup, and I think that it did not use the old copy protection. I have no idea how to do this. In addition, it is not a matter of “theft” of assets, which does not matter. For an attacker, every additional step, every nuisance that he finds in his path, undermines his determination to crack your application, what it is. It takes only one decisive cracker to make thousands of pirated copies, and we do not want this to happen.

Answer 3

There is no way to do this. What can be done in the APK. You can create drawings at runtime or pull them from the server, but is it worth it? There are better ways to combat theft of copyrighted content - one good tool is called a “lawyer”

Answer 4

It is not possible to prevent a user from trying to copy apk to their computer and open it.

Answer 5

try using progaurd, even if they opened apk, they cannot see the files inside this

Answer 6

This is an old question, but if you want to protect your assets, you must encrypt them. You can decrypt assets at runtime. This will not stop everyone, but it will be more difficult to copy assets.

If you want to protect your code, you must use native code. Native code is more difficult to decompile and modify.

If you will use Java, you must confuse your code.