Cause of “This app contains code that attempts to bypass android's security protections”

Question

I have been working on a very benign Android application for a couple months now and all of a sudden I started getting this message on my device when I try to re-install it from IntelliJ.

My question is, what sort of things would cause Android OS to display this message? If I were to ever release this app, I certainly would not want my users to have to see this before installing.

Answer 1

I had the same problem and it was caused by gradle plugin v2.2.0 (beta version and also RC). When I changed the version back to 2.1.3 problem dissapeared.

classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.1.3'

Answer 2

I got this message when I tried to grok MVP + Dagger example from this googlesample

After a while I renamed a file FakeTasksRemoteDataSource.java in my project and Verify Apps fell silent.

So, I think you need to check the file names (and variables) for "stop words", like "fake" etc.

Answer 3

Quick Fix while development:

1) Uninstall the current app

2) Build > Rebuild Project

Worked for me. Not sure for others will work or not.

Answer 4

This looks like a warning from Verify Apps, which means that your app has been detected as malware. For obvious reasons, there's no detailed explanation of how malware is detected, but given the error message, I would double check anything in your app related to rooting, device admin, changing device security settings, or hacking other apps (including game cheats). If you are still confident it is a false positive, you can try contacting Google to appeal.

Edit: This link has more information. https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/2992033?hl=en

Google Play provides an app verification feature that warns users when installing potentially harmful apps from the Internet and third-party markets. In some cases, the app verification feature blocks the installation of apps.

If you believe that your application is incorrectly being warned or blocked by Google Play's app verifier, you can appeal the classification by emailing app-verification-appeals@google.com with:

The application package name. The SHA 256 digest of the application APK. Reason(s) why you believe your application is incorrectly categorized. A screenshot of the warning or blocking screen.