Question How to check whether an APK file is original or not?

[Thompson673]

Hi Hooman, I cannot download Google Earth in my country due to the national restriction, so I decided to get an apk file from Apkpure. I know that sideloading apks from unknown sources other than Google Play can be a risk to my phone. So I wonder that is there any way to check whether the apk file I got have the same signature with the one on the Play Store?

 

[Ralston18]

You would need know/have the respective signatures in order to compare them.

And it could be that the sideloaded apk's signature is spoofed or fraudulent.

The following link should prove helpful:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions...te-the-apk-signing-certificate-at-client-side

Note that the link is almost a year old and likely of more interest to developers.

Overall, if you are at risk with regards to files from any unknown sources.

 

[Grobe]

May not be relevant for your case, but for many big download files it is.

E.g. you go and download an ISO file, say Linux Mint just for the example. And you would like to see if the checksum of the downloaded files is equal to the checksum on the download page. There are actually a page on that web page that explain - here is a link.

 

[Alabalcho]

Google does not distribute APK files for side-loading. Downloading them from other sites is always a risky process.