XCODE: How to get/verify ACCURATE timestamp from device

Question

Is it possible to get the NTP or accurate timestamp without internet connection? I cannot take/don't trust device timestamp with [NSDate date] as it can be modify by user and my apps will be hacked by just modifying the system date & time.

Apart from this, instead of obtain accurate timestamp, is there any way to check the system date has changed by user or not set as "Automatically".

Thanks & Regards,

Weng

Sadly, CLLocationManager doesn't provide this (even though GPS chipset has true time information). One way (maybe not the best one) would be to use some kind of [Network Time Protocol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol) — Rok Jarc, May 17 '12 at 11:59

score -1 · Answer 1 · answered May 17 '12 at 13:16

-1

If you want to gather the current date in relation to a specific time zone, you can use something along the lines of:

    //create calendar
NSCalendar *calendar = [NSCalendar currentCalendar];

//set calendar time zone
[calendar setTimeZone:[NSTimeZone timeZoneWithAbbreviation:@"UTC"]];

//gather date components
NSDateComponents *components = [calendar components:(NSYearCalendarUnit | NSMonthCalendarUnit | NSDayCalendarUnit | NSHourCalendarUnit | NSMinuteCalendarUnit) fromDate:[NSDate date]];

It's a little convoluted, but there still seems to be an issue with NSDate on iOS with regards to daylight savings so this has saved me a lot of time ( pun not intended :P ).

answered May 17 '12 at 13:16

Zack Brown

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Yes, but does this fix setting the actual time on the os? – Richard J. Ross III May 17 '12 at 13:19
You mean the time in Settings.app? The only way you can change the time on the device is through Settings, otherwise you need to create the time manually using NSDate and NSDateComponents. – Zack Brown May 17 '12 at 13:45
yes, that is what I meant. Does this give the correct time if I manually go to the settings app and change the hour/minute/second? – Richard J. Ross III May 17 '12 at 14:07
1

Using NSDate *date = [NSDate date]; will return a date relative to the time set on the device. – Zack Brown May 17 '12 at 14:33

XCODE: How to get/verify ACCURATE timestamp from device

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