Introducing UAObfuscatedString

What is UAObfuscatedString?

UAObfuscatedString is a simple and lightweight category on NSString that allows you to prevent sensitive strings from appearing in your compiled binary. Without some sort of obfuscation, strings like backend API methods and urls, API keys and other sensitive data can be extracted by utilizing various command-line tools such as strings.

Installation

1. Add NSString+UAObfuscatedString.[h|m] to your project.
2. Add import "NSString+UAObfuscatedString.h" where you want to use it.

Usage

The category is very simple to use. Each letter a-Z has been changed into a method name which appends the letter to the calling string. Numbers are prefixed with an underscore. There are two special methods for a space (space and _) and a special method for a period (dot).

NSLog(@"%@", @"".T.h.i.s._.i.s._.a._.t.e.s.t.dot._._1.dot._._2.dot.space._3.dot.);
> This is a test. 1. 2. 3.

Usually, you will end up using this on things like your in-app purchase identifiers, but there are many places where it makes sense to hide your strings from extractors.

NSString *identifier = @"".c.o.m.dot.u.r.b.a.n.a.p.p.s.dot.e.x.a.m.p.l.e;

There are many ways to obfuscate strings, this is just one of them. Check out UAObfuscatedString on Github and let me know what you think!

Lastly, I run a small software company called Urban Apps. It pays the bills so I can take the time to write helpful utilities like UAObfuscatedString. If you found this page helpful at all, I would really appreciate it if you would check out my Apps on the iTunes App Store.

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