We have a requirement to implement files protection in the app. Even though apple provides file protection attributes, we are doubtful about the behavior when iPhone is jail broken or device is not password protected.
In order to implement this one idea is to encrypt all the files, file names, and such like. This is a long route. I m thinking instead of encrypting everything if possible add protection only at the top level. Say I have a folder named 'Top Folder' in documents folder where I store all the apps folders and files. With a password key can I add lock to only the top folder? How will it work?
No, you can't. A folder is only a part of file path, it cannot change (encrypt) data in files.
On Mac, it would be possible to mount an encrypted filesystem to a folder, but no such functionality is possible on iOS.
For encryption on iOS you have to encrypt/decrypt each file separately. Make sure the encryption keys are saved into the keychain and you encrypt/decrypt the files on the fly. Don't leave temporary decrypted files anywhere.
Related
On my app (swift 2.3, xcode 7+, for iOS 9+) I'm write to a file, use the file, and then delete the file from a tmp directory created with NSTemporaryDirectory (on the app sandboxed). Although its a quick automated sequence, for a brief moment the file is written to the tmp directory in order to be used and then deleted.
My concern is: How secure, for that brief moment, is the file stored at tmp directory? Could an attacker get access to the file at the moment it's on the tmp directory?
If you're writing a file just to delete it, you should try to avoid storing the file on the system altogether. If you absolutely have to store the data on the device, you can use the .completeFileProtection option.
According to the documentation, .completeFileProtection will make it so the file is accessible only when the device is unlocked. This means that the only way that someone would have access to your data is if they have your phone's password, are somehow able to remotely unlock it using said password, and then execute code that has access to your app's sandboxed temporary file storage.
As far as I know, this would be very hard to achieve.
Is there any apple API to support encryption of a document similar to keynote application(.key file) or in general how to support encryption to entire document.
I can't encrypt entire folder because in iCloud scenario small change will trigger the entire document to upload looks like i am missing something.
I just tried to see how the files are encrypted in keynote. In the below image left side is document without password and other one is with password.
Thanks
I think there is no straight forward way to encrypt entire document we have to do file by file.
I have a custom requirement in one of my products and I need to protect or encrypt files that are stored inside the NSDocumentsDirectory folder. Even if these documents are mailed (The app has the ability to mail documents) to some other person , he or she will not be able to open this document without using my app (I will be using open in functionality of email attachments). So basically only the application can access all these documents and without the app the documents should be mere junk. IS there any way to do it, or has any one done something before.
I also saw this but could not get a complete idea.
If you want a quick and easy method for data that doesn't need serious security, just zip the files with a fixed password.
ZipArchive is a good library for this.
For a more serious approach, check iOS - Protecting files with a custom encryption key?
The other post you mentioned works on the concept of password protecting the files, I had encountered the same issue that was for my custom defined files in which our team, encoded the contents of the file on random locations, and saved it.
Only our Application could decode it correctly as we had the key :)
It was a windows application, It would work here also.
I need to store some data files for my blackberry app. These are usually small png files that I download and store locally for performance reasons. Also I need to store an xml file locally.
My question is where are these files supposed to be saved on a blackberry? Is there such a thing as an application's home folder or settings folder in the blackberry filesystem?
What would be the path to such a folder?
This is for blackberry os 4.7 or later.
Thanks!
If it's not a huge amount of data (and by the sounds of it, it's not), take a look at the PersistentStore mechanism. You can store many types of data including native types (String, Integer, etc.) and even byte[] data (for images) using PersistentContent. The nice thing about PersistentStore is that it doesn't require any sort of filesystem access -- it doesn't leave files hanging around -- and if you include a custom class in the persistent store for your app (even a simple subclass of an existing persistible class such as Hashtable), it will automatically delete your persisted data if the app is deleted.
There's no official home folder for your application. In blackberry you can basically read/write just about anything/anywhere (well, you might get a SecurityException/IOException if you'll try do change some files).
You can write to the SDCard/Internal memory using the paths described here.
If you're worried about someone seeing and altering your data there's not much you can do except setting your files and directories as hidden using FileConnection.setHidden(true) but this is very lame since they can still be seen even from the native BlackBerry file browser if the user chooses to show hidden files from the menu.
Edit: You could of course encrypt/decrypt your data but this won't prevent someone from deleting it.
I have a plist in my Resources folder that I'm using to store conversion information. I'd like to give the user the ability to "turn off" certain units so that those units will never be used in conversions. I don't want to have to maintain two lists with the conversion information in it.
I am able to save data back to that plist file in the stimulator. (using writeToFile and the pathForResource). I'm wondering if this is a problematic approach.
Will there be an issues with this on deployment? (i.e. will Apple seal the plist)
What will happen if I push out an upgrade? What if that upgrade contains new units added to the list?
Would doing something like copying the plist to the user's documents directory make sense?
It is not possible to change the app bundle. Further the app is signed. Instead copy the plist to the documents directory on first start and access from there.
No whatever is in the application bundle is offlimit has the DRM on iPhone needs it to stay the same. You should save your preferences in the Apllication Document folder or Preference folder.
Use an iOS Settings Bundle...