Enable Automatic Reference Counting

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Gurgen
Posts: 34
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2015 2:09 pm

Enable Automatic Reference Counting

Post by Gurgen » Wed Jul 12, 2017 5:48 pm

Hi All,

Very technical question.

Is it possible to enable ARC(Automatic Reference Counting) on iOS app?

Thanks,
Gurgen

LCMark
Livecode Staff Member
Livecode Staff Member
Posts: 1206
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 11:27 am

Re: Enable Automatic Reference Counting

Post by LCMark » Thu Jul 13, 2017 7:04 am

@Gurgen: The engine is provided as a precompiled blob on iOS, so whether or not the engine is compiled using ARC shouldn't matter. Is there an issue you are encountering?

Gurgen
Posts: 34
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2015 2:09 pm

Re: Enable Automatic Reference Counting

Post by Gurgen » Thu Jul 13, 2017 8:38 am

@LCMark: Hi Mark, thank you for replay. The application that we are developing for some_big_company required some technical solutions to pass the security test.

I read your answer about Code Obfuscation too. This and a few other items need to be implemented on our app. If you can help me to get proper answers to this questions it will be very helpful to me. Below is the items they are interested in.
  • Application Misconfiguration: ARC Disabled (iOS only) - Can this be a security issue?

    Application Misconfiguration: Backup Allowed (Android only) - I have set the allowBackup attribute equal to false in the AndroidManifest.xml from Livecode package. <application android:allowBackup="false" />. Will this work?

    Binary Protection: Insufficient Code Obfuscation(Android only) - They are mostly interested on obfuscation of logic code to protect application from being reverse-engineered.

    Jailbroken Devices: Is there any way to detect this?
Looking forward to get answers for these questions.

Gurgen

LCMark
Livecode Staff Member
Livecode Staff Member
Posts: 1206
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 11:27 am

Re: Enable Automatic Reference Counting

Post by LCMark » Thu Jul 13, 2017 12:16 pm

@Gurgen: I've replied to Todd directly on these issues... However:

1) Can ARC being disabled be a security issue - no. Your app is in LiveCode, so you are not using Obj-C directly. LiveCode's automatic memory management is superior to ARC (as LiveCode is a safe language - Obj-C is not, even with ARC).

2) Backup Allowed: The Android engine does not do anything specific relating to this flag. It sounds like turning this off means that it turns off something which the Android environment allows; so I think you should be okay.

3) Binary protection. There is no logic code in Java as your app is written in LiveCode. All the LiveCode code is double obfuscated in commercial builds if you use a password on your stackfiles (the password protection is the first level, the second is an extra layer of obfuscation applied when the standalone is built).

4) Jailbroken devices: We will need to investigate how to detect this!

Hope this helps,

Mark.

Gurgen
Posts: 34
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2015 2:09 pm

Re: Enable Automatic Reference Counting

Post by Gurgen » Thu Jul 13, 2017 1:09 pm

@LCMark: Thank you very much for good explanation and help.

--
Gurgen

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