Shielding Tool Internals

This section describes how the integration process is modifying the original Android application and then arriving at a modified and protected application.

The integration process can be broken down to three main steps:

1. Adding App Shielding to the app.

2. Create bindings for the app.

3. Obfuscate the app (optional).

The modifications performed by these steps will be adding to and modifying existing Java code, native libraries, resources, as well as modifying the application manifest and resources.

The initial step of decompiling and analyzing the application code and manifest is important in order to perform the next steps.

Adding App Shielding to the app can be summarized as adding the App Shielding native libraries and App Shielding configuration to the app, and making sure App Shielding is being loaded once the application starts.

Creating bindings for the app means modifying the application in ways to make the application not function if App Shielding is removed from the application.

Obfuscating the app is an optional step which involves modifying the application code, and resources such as the manifest. Obfuscation modifies names of classes, methods and fields, and performs transformations on code to make it harder to analyze.

Lastly, the app is re-built creating a modified .aab or .apk file, which needs to be signed before deployment. The Shielding Tool can perform this step automatically.