Yeah, I did some poking around in a small apk and that's what I'd
found.  Just hadn't gotten around to coming back and reporting on it.
(Kinda want to do a little more research, just to satisfy my own
curiosity.)

On Oct 8, 5:19 pm, Dianne Hackborn <[email protected]> wrote:
> An .apk is a super-set of a .jar, and uses the standard Java certificate and
> signing mechanisms in a .jar.  If you are concerned about this being
> broken...  well, not sure what to say. :}
>
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 6:00 AM, DanH <[email protected]> wrote:
> > I may have misinterpreted.  Presumably there's a checksum of the APK
> > data in the signed certificate.  I would assume (hope) that's a
> > cryptographically strong checksum.  (If not, the entire Android
> > platform is in jeopardy.)
>
> > If one wants a sure "signature" (in a generic sense) that uniquely and
> > reliably identifies a SPECIFIC version of code, that cryptographic
> > checksum would be what you want (though I don't know how you'd access
> > that).  Otherwise, the public key (which Diane has finally explained
> > is what the package "signature" is) is a secure, reliable way to
> > identify the publisher (and, with the package name, the specific app
> > (though not it's version)).
>
> > There's no point in creating a separate CRC32 over the app, to use as
> > an identity to send back to a server or whatever.
>
> > On Oct 8, 6:21 am, Mark Murphy <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > What CRC32 checksum?
>
> > > Trevor Johns, in a discussion of LVL, offered up CRC32 as a means of
> > > helping detect tampering, but that was simply an example. Otherwise, I
> > > am coming up with zero references to the use of CRC32 with respect to
> > > APKs.
>
> > > Do you have a pointer to somewhere in the open source code where they
> > > are using a CRC32 checksum in this fashion?
>
> > > Thanks!
>
> > > On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 7:12 AM, DanH <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > > What I mean is that if the bad actor can manipulate the apk bytes
> > > > while still maintaining the same checksum, then the whole scheme is
> > > > insecure -- there's no point in having it signed.  A CRC32 checksum is
> > > > easily spoofed -- the apk bytes need to be checksummed with a
> > > > cryptographic checksum of some sort.
>
> > > --
> > > Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy)http://commonsware.com|
> >http://github.com/commonsguyhttp://commonsware.com/blog|http://twitter.com/commonsguy
>
> > > Warescription: Three Android Books, Plus Updates, One Low Price!
>
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> --
> Dianne Hackborn
> Android framework engineer
> [email protected]
>
> Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to
> provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails.  All such
> questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and
> answer them.

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