Need help from members with samsung device and "device protection" enabled

tufanv

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Hello,

After a recent update, our app has been flagged as a threat by Mcafee which provides device protection to "new samsung devices". When this setting is on, when users try to download our app from play store, they get a warning that it is not safe to download. We contacted mcafee they whitelisted the apk file but I don't know if it will work because users are not downloading the apk directly, they are downloading from play store. So I need to check if it can be downloaded when this setting is on without a warning. The setting is here:

setting->battery and device care-> device protection.
if this is enabled, you can try to install our app from here:

It would be better to test
1) if it can be downloaded without a warning
2) after installing and running the app navigate to setting->battery and device care-> device protection and scan the device.

If yo ucan write your device model of samsung it would be really helpful.
Thank you very much for your help in advance.

Tufan
 

josejad

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Hi. I've tryied to install it now, and I get a warning:
"This app has been identified as ...". Two options: "No install or Install anyway".
I've installed it, and after the setup is completed, I get a notify fron device protection: Detected a threat"

Samsung Galaxy A-13, with Android 13.
 

GMan

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Same phone (A13) - same manners
 

tufanv

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I have found the problem that causes the false positive and sent a new update which is published. If you can uninstall the app and try to install again It should be ok now. I will be happy if you can confirm. Thanks guys.
 

josejad

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Reinstalled with no problem¡¡

What was the problem? (if it can be known)
 

tufanv

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It is really annoying. I will explain what happened shortly. The last update which resulted with this problem was a big update. Many things changed so it was nearly impossible to know what caused it. After 2 days of chat with support agents of Mcafee that doesn't even know they are the developer of "device protection" system of samsung. You know, there comes a moment and you understand, they can't do anything for you because they don't understand what you are telling, I needed to go back to last clean build and started copying the new codes part by part and testing it on a device as an internal tester. If the build gets this warning, you can also understand when installing as an internal tester. That helped very much. I started to implement the update part by part. After 39th build, (no sleep for 2 days) warning started to show again. Between 38th and 39th build I only had created a designer script with names sms.bal and mail.bal. WTF!

I deleted these two layout files (by the way, layout files are empty). Error was gone! F**king Mcafee classifies my app as a threat when there are these two designer scripts.. Ilost many customers on update of course when they saw this threat message.. I don't know how this can cause a complicated mcafee system to see my app as a virus. I will try with an empty project and create sms.bal and mail.bal only and see if it pops again.

It was really annoying 2 days for me. Things like this started to make me disgusted of policies on Android. It can happen to anyone at any update and it can f**k up your years of effort in a week if you can't find the solution. So, if one day you see this problem, be aware that anything can cause it and start from the last clean update and proceed part by part uplaoding a build to internal testing phase and test as an internal tester with device proteciton on, on samsung devices until the error pops again.

Thanks for your help guys.
Reinstalled with no problem¡¡

What was the problem? (if it can be known)
 

GMan

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Now it is installed and can be run without warnings
 

ilan

Expert
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Longtime User
It is really annoying. I will explain what happened shortly. The last update which resulted with this problem was a big update. Many things changed so it was nearly impossible to know what caused it. After 2 days of chat with support agents of Mcafee that doesn't even know they are the developer of "device protection" system of samsung. You know, there comes a moment and you understand, they can't do anything for you because they don't understand what you are telling, I needed to go back to last clean build and started copying the new codes part by part and testing it on a device as an internal tester. If the build gets this warning, you can also understand when installing as an internal tester. That helped very much. I started to implement the update part by part. After 39th build, (no sleep for 2 days) warning started to show again. Between 38th and 39th build I only had created a designer script with names sms.bal and mail.bal. WTF!

I deleted these two layout files (by the way, layout files are empty). Error was gone! F**king Mcafee classifies my app as a threat when there are these two designer scripts.. Ilost many customers on update of course when they saw this threat message.. I don't know how this can cause a complicated mcafee system to see my app as a virus. I will try with an empty project and create sms.bal and mail.bal only and see if it pops again.

It was really annoying 2 days for me. Things like this started to make me disgusted of policies on Android. It can happen to anyone at any update and it can f**k up your years of effort in a week if you can't find the solution. So, if one day you see this problem, be aware that anything can cause it and start from the last clean update and proceed part by part uplaoding a build to internal testing phase and test as an internal tester with device proteciton on, on samsung devices until the error pops again.

Thanks for your help guys.
thanx for sharing your experience. you noticed me of something i did the last 15 years wrong since i started developing with b4x. i always work on the same app. i dont have backup builds so if something goes wrong i cannot go back :oops:

maybe i need to manage version control so i always can go back...
thanx
 

tufanv

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thanx for sharing your experience. you noticed me of something i did the last 15 years wrong since i started developing with b4x. i always work on the same app. i dont have backup builds so if something goes wrong i cannot go back :oops:

maybe i need to manage version control so i always can go back...
thanx
I didn't do it also for years. But it really helps to know what you have changed when there is a problem. Github desktop works well for me.
 

GMan

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I am working with (payed) Google Drive and this works very well
 

JakeBullet70

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Between 38th and 39th build I only had created a designer script with names sms.bal and mail.bal. WTF!

I deleted these two layout files (by the way, layout files are empty)

So what I have learned from this is Mcafee is NOT doing their job.
Empty files?
Really Mcafee?
That's the best you can do?
 

rabbitBUSH

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
I only had created a designer script with names sms.bal and mail.bal. WTF!
Do you think its just about those two words(SMS and MAIL)?
SMS and Mail require "strong" permissions - so - if McAfee just look at the file names they could just make some risk assumptions {a short-cut on their part).

What happens if you change the file names [ S01MS and M01ail ] for instance?

There, again it would be purely of academic interest to try this [no matter what it would suggest about the McAfee risk assessment strategies].
 

tufanv

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Longtime User
Do you think its just about those two words(SMS and MAIL)?
SMS and Mail require "strong" permissions - so - if McAfee just look at the file names they could just make some risk assumptions {a short-cut on their part).

What happens if you change the file names [ S01MS and M01ail ] for instance?

There, again it would be purely of academic interest to try this [no matter what it would suggest about the McAfee risk assessment strategies].
Well, I didn't try those names and it is difficult to test each build as it needs to be uploaded to developer console. But not using those names corrected the issue so yes it is probably a shortcut. BTW, if you need to contact mcafee support, May God be with you.
 
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