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Software Engineering

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  • When you distribute your client, what's to stop a user of the client from reverse-engineering the username/password combo from your source? Commented Oct 27, 2012 at 1:04
  • I thought the source files were encrypted if you try to reverse engineer an iphone app that you have downloaded for instance. Commented Oct 27, 2012 at 17:16
  • The client needs to be able to send the information over the wire, therefore it needs to be able to read the information. How can the client execute something it can't read? And if the client can read it, so can the user with a bit of effort. Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 0:27
  • SSL would solve this concern right? Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 2:26
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    SSL only protects data encrypted from being read during transmissions. But if you distribute a binary that contains a string with your username/password for your API with the intent to log in to the API then the program needs to be able to send that username/password combo to the server. In order to do that the client hardware needs to be able to read the username/password in order to know what to send. And if the hardware can read it then so can the user, therefore it's only a matter of time until your password is found and your API can be accessed by anyone. Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 3:10