Google disables Android Jelly Bean 4.1 app protection

Google, back at Google I/O in June laid out plans for making security improvements, specifically to the app code in Jelly Bean. The improvements focussed on Jelly Bean 4.1 in particular, adding encryption with a device-specific key (improving Digital Rights Management), so apps downloaded from the Play Store could not simply be copied and uploaded to the Internet for others to manually install.

It seemed like this was going to be a major security improvement, that was until the new DRM feature appears to have stopped users from accessing legal Android 4.1 apps bought from the Google Play Store. The idea behind the DRM feature was it would stop app piracy and most importantly the proliferation of malicious apps. The app encryption feature would prevent illegal copies of paid apps by encrypting those apps which a user downloads, with a unique device-specific key. The Android device which downloads a specific app should be able to use the app and those others who copied the app manually wouldn’t be able to use the app. The idea was simple until that was, it was executed. Read more...