How much access will my users have to a SQLite Database I ship with my app?

Question

I'm developing an iPad app that will rely on a very large database of valuable information. I'm not too familiar with the device myself (I don't have a personal iPad, nor have I ever used one outside of developing this app). Users cannot directly see the data in the database through my app anywhere.

Would there be any other way users could get access to the data in my database (perhaps by plugging the device into the computer and going through Xcode or iTunes)? If not, I've been reading up on jailbreaking a little, and I've seen that doing so can allow a user access to the device's filesystem, so would that allow them to see the contents of my database? Or would it be possible by jailbreaking and installing an app to view database files on jailbroken devices (in fact this question would suggest that it could be quite easy to develop a "database reader" app for jailbroken devices)?

Answer 1

If the database is there, then people can touch it. It's just a matter of being a little more than a power user. They might not be able to read the data from the database if they don't have the credentials to authenticate into it, but then again once you have a database in your hard disk, it's just a matter of patience and knowledge to break into it.

This is a principle that applies to any device and operating system, not just iPad and iOS. If you don't want your users messing up with some file your app uses, you may encrypt it with an obscenely long encryption key. Someone may eventually crack that info... All you can do is ensure that they won't be able to do so before your app is obsolete anyway.

Otherwise, keep your data in a server, where people can't touch it.