How to check if APK is signed or "debug build"?

android debugging certificate
Im0rtality picture Im0rtality · Aug 17, 2011 · Viewed 74.8k times · Source

As far as I know, in android "release build" is signed APK. How to check it from code or does Eclipse has some kinda of secret defines?

I need this to debug populating ListView items from web service data (no, logcat not an option).

My thoughts:

  • Application's android:debuggable, but for some reason that doesn't look reliable.
  • Hard-coding device ID isn't good idea, because I am using same device for testing signed APKs.
  • Using manual flag somewhere in code? Plausible, but gonna definitely forget to change at some time, plus all programmers are lazy.

Answer

Blundell picture Blundell · Aug 17, 2011

To check the debuggable flag, you can use this code:

boolean isDebuggable =  ( 0 != ( getApplicationInfo().flags & ApplicationInfo.FLAG_DEBUGGABLE ) );

Kotlin:

val isDebuggable = 0 != applicationInfo.flags and ApplicationInfo.FLAG_DEBUGGABLE

For more information, please see Securing Android LVL Applications.

Alternatively, if you're using Gradle correctly, you can check if BuildConfig.DEBUG is true or false.

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