Don't obfuscate hardcoded string in proguard

Question

I'm going to obfuscate my source using proguard.

My source defined some hardcode string and I don't know how to make prevent proguard to obfuscate my String value (It's "tbl_people" in below example)

class

public class MyDaoObject {
  public static final String TABLENAME = "tbl_people"; 
  //other database code
}

If string obfuscated, The SQLite can't create table using that string. There are many hardcoded string like that. How can I config proguard to do that ?

Any suggestion is welcome.

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Update:

This is logcat:

07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148): Process: com.myapp, PID: 11148
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to create application com.myapp.AudioPhotoApplication: a.a.a.d: Could not init DAOConfig
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:4470)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1500(ActivityThread.java:144)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1265)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:136)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5140)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:795)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:611)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148): Caused by: a.a.a.d: Could not init DAOConfig
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at a.a.a.b.a.<init>(Unknown Source)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at a.a.a.b.a(Unknown Source)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at com.myapp.database.a.<init>(Unknown Source)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at com.myapp.AudioPhotoApplication.onCreate(Unknown Source)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at android.app.Instrumentation.callApplicationOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1007)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:4467)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    ... 10 more
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148): Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchFieldException: TABLENAME
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    at java.lang.Class.getField(Class.java:724)
07-13 17:55:12.310: E/AndroidRuntime(11148):    ... 16 more

I think the problem come from String because when I keep class that handle database, my app doesn't crash anymore !!

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Update 2: Problem didn't come from string value but string name. Here is my problem: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/greendao/tyqjrx2otVo/PHExbn4iZk8J

I think proguard doesn't obfuscate the string in your class, only method/field/class names. — greywolf82, Jul 13 '14 at 10:48
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchFieldException: TABLENAME. It seems your classes aren't obfuscated synchronously. One is obfuscated and the other still has the original name as reference. — Dawnkeeper, Jul 13 '14 at 11:23

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

3

Are you sure that this is the problem, because ProGuard doesn´t obfuscate string like stated in their FAQ:

No. String encryption in program code has to be perfectly reversible by definition, so it only improves the obfuscation level. It increases the footprint of the code. However, by popular demand, ProGuard's closed-source sibling for Android, DexGuard, does provide string encryption, along with more protection techniques against static and dynamic analysis

Similiar question (but the guy wants strings to be obfuscated), author of proguard replied: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12665420/1643188

edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

Community

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answered Jul 13 '14 at 10:49

DieselPower

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I think that's problem. I've update detail for my question above. Thanks for the answer :) – Tai Dao Jul 13 '14 at 11:04
tks, I've found problem isn't come from string value but string name. – Tai Dao Jul 14 '14 at 03:33

Don't obfuscate hardcoded string in proguard

1 Answers1