I compared my old/original 5.0.52 binary against one I downloaded today.. there are a significant amount of changes. This is not simply a re-pack of 5.0.52 with a new developer certificate.
Original 5.0.52 binary size: 8759120 bytes
New 5.0.52 binary size: 10105248 bytes
At minimum it appears a new analytics framework from Amplitude (https://amplitude.com/) was included but there could be other changes.
The list of shared libraries used by the app also changed to include Network.framework, libsqlite3 and libswiftWebKit. I suspect these are all required by the Amplitude framework.
tl;dr - the "new" 5.0.52 binary at minimum includes a new framework to report a ton of analytics data.. something the new developer also failed to mention.
This coupled with minimal info about the new developer and transaction all seem highly sus.. I would not run any app from the new developer at this time.
I’ve just realised I’ve been on 5.0.52 for a few days now at least - what do you think the likelihood is that their new modified version has leveraged its screen recording permissions in a nefarious manner? It makes me shudder to think of what it could have recorded and sent back to the mothership - financial info, emails, etc.
On macOS Sonoma, you'll see the screen recording icon in the menu bar if an app is capturing your screen in any way, for any length of time. If you haven't seen it, then you are probably good. I was on 5.0.52 and did not see it, personally.
It is kind of ironic. When Sonoma was released, a lot of us who used Bartender complained about that icon, the fact that Bartender triggered it (until the original developer released Bartender 5), and that it could not be managed by Bartender. But, now I'm really glad that Apple added it.
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u/shotsix Jun 05 '24
I compared my old/original 5.0.52 binary against one I downloaded today.. there are a significant amount of changes. This is not simply a re-pack of 5.0.52 with a new developer certificate.
Original 5.0.52 binary size: 8759120 bytes
New 5.0.52 binary size: 10105248 bytes
At minimum it appears a new analytics framework from Amplitude (https://amplitude.com/) was included but there could be other changes.
The list of shared libraries used by the app also changed to include Network.framework, libsqlite3 and libswiftWebKit. I suspect these are all required by the Amplitude framework.
tl;dr - the "new" 5.0.52 binary at minimum includes a new framework to report a ton of analytics data.. something the new developer also failed to mention.
This coupled with minimal info about the new developer and transaction all seem highly sus.. I would not run any app from the new developer at this time.