Thu, 05 Jul 2012 06:31:17 PDT
Instapaper developer Marco Arment notes that Apple's App Store is apparently
pushing out corrupted app binaries of a number of different applications to
users. The issue, which renders the apps unusable, has apparently been
triggered on app updates approved over the past few days.
Characterizations of this issue:
- The app crashes immediately on launch, every time, even after a delete and
reinstall as long as the corrupt file is being served by the App Store.
- It doesn’t even show the Default.png before crashing. Just a split-second
of a partial fade to black, then back to Springboard.
- It may only affect customers in some regions.
- If updating from iTunes, some customers might get a dialog citing error
8324 or 8326.
- Mac apps might show this dialog: “[App] is damaged and can’t be opened.
Delete [App] and download it again from the App Store.”
- The console might show: AppleFairplayTextCrypterSession::fairplayOpen()
failed, error -42110
Arment has collected a list of nearly two dozen apps that have been affected
by the issue, and while Apple begin distributing a corrected version of
Instapaper within a few hours yesterday, it remains unclear whether all
affected apps have been fixed. For those who already downloaded corrupted
versions of affected apps, the apps must be deleted and reinstalled.
GoodReader has more on the issue, including a description of how to back up
settings and restore them upon reinstallation. GoodReader notes that the
issue has appeared on both of its last two updates, speculating that
something is going wrong with Apple's encryption process temporarily, and
after a few hours the issue resolves itself.
While in theory Apple's servers must be ready to distribute the new app
binary by the time they start sending update notifications to users' devices
, something goes wrong inside Apple's distribution servers, and customers
receive a damaged binary instead of the good one that we've sent to Apple.
The exact reason is up to Apple to determine, but it looks like some binary
encryption that happens internally in the App Store is only halfway-done at
this point, and customers receive incorrectly (or partially?) encrypted
binaries to their iPads. Those binaries do not get recognized by iOS as
valid App Store executable binaries, and iOS simply refuses to launch them.
A few hours pass by, things settle down on Apple's servers, the update
finally gets to places inside Apple's servers to which it was supposed to
get, and everyone who downloads the update from that moment on, receives a
correctly encrypted fully functional app binary.
Apple has yet to issue an official statement on the issue, and thus details
remain unconfirmed for the time being, but developers are suggesting that
users wait a few hours after receiving notifications about updated apps
before updating their devices.
Update: Arment's list of apps confirmed to be affected by the issue has now
grown to 70.
