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I need a wireless network scanner app for my iPhone and found Fing by Overlook Software (over-look.com). I can't find any references to it in reputable sources online.

Given the recent reports of potentially malicious software being distributed through the App Store I don't want to blindly install an unknown app with this type of capability. Can anyone here point me to some resource where I can fully vet this app?

I note it is briefly referenced in another SF thread: How do I find out which devices are on a network?

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closed as off topic by Shane Madden, joeqwerty, Stefan Lasiewski, Zoredache, Iain Nov 9 '11 at 20:08


That's not a report about malware being distributed via the App Store, it's a report about someone allegedly proving that it's possible. –  joeqwerty Nov 9 '11 at 18:45
This question might be better suited for apple.stackexchange.com –  Stefan Lasiewski Nov 9 '11 at 18:59
@joeqwerty - Edited to hopefully more accurately describe the event. –  Paul S. Nov 9 '11 at 19:01

1 Answer 1

up vote 1 down vote accepted

You could attempt to vet it by running a packet capture on your firewall/router to capture all traffic transiting your firewall/router, turn off the carrier connection (3G or whatever) on the iPhone, connect the iPhone to your wireless network (assuming you have one), fire up Fing, and look in the capture for traffic originating from the iPhone. This isn't a guarantee that:

  1. You'll see traffic from the iPhone transiting the firewall/router

  2. That you'll be able to isolate any of the aforementioned traffic to Fing

but it may give you some clues (most likely from the destination of said traffic) as to whether or not Fing is doing anything surreptitious.

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