How do I find out which keystore was used to sign an app?

I have an app which is signed and several keystore files. I'd like to update the app, so I need to find out which one of keys was used.

How can I match which keystore was used to originally sign my app against various keystores I have on my machine?


First, unzip the APK and extract the file /META-INF/ANDROID_.RSA (this file may also be CERT.RSA, but there should only be one .RSA file).

Then issue this command:

keytool -printcert -file ANDROID_.RSA

You will get certificate fingerprints like this:

     MD5:  B3:4F:BE:07:AA:78:24:DC:CA:92:36:FF:AE:8C:17:DB
     SHA1: 16:59:E7:E3:0C:AA:7A:0D:F2:0D:05:20:12:A8:85:0B:32:C5:4F:68
     Signature algorithm name: SHA1withRSA

Then use the keytool again to print out all the aliases of your signing keystore:

keytool -list -keystore my-signing-key.keystore

You will get a list of aliases and their certificate fingerprint:

android_key, Jan 23, 2010, PrivateKeyEntry,
Certificate fingerprint (MD5): B3:4F:BE:07:AA:78:24:DC:CA:92:36:FF:AE:8C:17:DB

Voila! we can now determined the apk has been signed with this keystore, and with the alias 'android_key'.

Keytool is part of Java, so make sure your PATH has Java installation dir in it.


Gradle Signing Report

The easiest way to output the signing information of each of your app's variants, is by using the Gradle Signing Report.

./gradlew signingReport

> Task :app:signingReport
Variant: debug
Config: debug
Store: ~/.android/debug.keystore
Alias: AndroidDebugKey
MD5: A5:88:41:04:8D:06:71:6D:FE:33:76:87:AC:AD:19:23
SHA1: A7:89:E5:05:C8:17:A1:22:EA:90:6E:A6:EA:A3:D4:8B:3A:30:AB:18
SHA-256: 05:A2:2C:35:EE:F2:51:23:72:4D:72:67:A5:6C:8C:58:22:2A:00:D6:DB:F6:45:D5:C1:82:D2:80:A4:69:A8:FE
Valid until: Wednesday, August 10, 2044

Signature of an APK or AAB

Alternatively, you can use Java 7's Key and Certificate Management Tool keytool to check the signature of a keystore or an APK without extracting any files.

# APK file
keytool -printcert -jarfile app.apk

# AAB file
keytool -printcert -jarfile app.aab

The output will reveal the signature owner/issuer and MD5, SHA1 and SHA256 fingerprints of the APK file app.apk or AAB file app.aab.

(Note that the -jarfile argument was introduced in Java 7; see the documentation for more details.)

Signature of a keystore

Similarly, you can check the signature of the keystore used to sign your application.

keytool -list -v -keystore release.jks

The output will reveal the aliases (entries) in the keystore file release.jks, with the certificate fingerprints (MD5, SHA1 and SHA256).

Note that if you are using Play App Signing, your upload key may differ from the key used by Google Play to sign your app. In this case, you can find the app signature from the Google Play Console on the Release > Setup > App Integrity page.

This process is documented on the Google developer site:
https://developers.google.com/android/guides/client-auth

In conclusion

If the SHA1 fingerprints between the APK and the keystore match, then you can rest assured that that app is signed with the key.


To build on Paul Lammertsma's answer, this command will print the names and signatures of all APKs in the current dir (I'm using sh because later I need to pipe the output to grep):

find . -name "*.apk" -exec echo "APK: {}" \; -exec sh -c 'keytool -printcert -jarfile "{}"' \;

Sample output:

APK: ./com.google.android.youtube-10.39.54-107954130-minAPI15.apk
Signer #1:

Signature:

Owner: CN=Unknown, OU="Google, Inc", O="Google, Inc", L=Mountain View, ST=CA, C=US
Issuer: CN=Unknown, OU="Google, Inc", O="Google, Inc", L=Mountain View, ST=CA, C=US
Serial number: 4934987e
Valid from: Mon Dec 01 18:07:58 PST 2008 until: Fri Apr 18 19:07:58 PDT 2036
Certificate fingerprints:
         MD5:  D0:46:FC:5D:1F:C3:CD:0E:57:C5:44:40:97:CD:54:49
         SHA1: 24:BB:24:C0:5E:47:E0:AE:FA:68:A5:8A:76:61:79:D9:B6:13:A6:00
         SHA256: 3D:7A:12:23:01:9A:A3:9D:9E:A0:E3:43:6A:B7:C0:89:6B:FB:4F:B6:79:F4:DE:5F:E7:C2:3F:32:6C:8F:99:4A
         Signature algorithm name: MD5withRSA
         Version: 1

APK: ./com.google.android.youtube_10.40.56-108056134_minAPI15_maxAPI22(armeabi-v7a)(480dpi).apk
Signer #1:

Signature:

Owner: CN=Unknown, OU="Google, Inc", O="Google, Inc", L=Mountain View, ST=CA, C=US
Issuer: CN=Unknown, OU="Google, Inc", O="Google, Inc", L=Mountain View, ST=CA, C=US
Serial number: 4934987e
Valid from: Mon Dec 01 18:07:58 PST 2008 until: Fri Apr 18 19:07:58 PDT 2036
Certificate fingerprints:
         MD5:  D0:46:FC:5D:1F:C3:CD:0E:57:C5:44:40:97:CD:54:49
         SHA1: 24:BB:24:C0:5E:47:E0:AE:FA:68:A5:8A:76:61:79:D9:B6:13:A6:00
         SHA256: 3D:7A:12:23:01:9A:A3:9D:9E:A0:E3:43:6A:B7:C0:89:6B:FB:4F:B6:79:F4:DE:5F:E7:C2:3F:32:6C:8F:99:4A
         Signature algorithm name: MD5withRSA
         Version: 1

Or if you just care about SHA1:

find . -name "*.apk" -exec echo "APK: {}" \; -exec sh -c 'keytool -printcert -jarfile "{}" | grep SHA1' \;

Sample output:

APK: ./com.google.android.youtube-10.39.54-107954130-minAPI15.apk
         SHA1: 24:BB:24:C0:5E:47:E0:AE:FA:68:A5:8A:76:61:79:D9:B6:13:A6:00
APK: ./com.google.android.youtube_10.40.56-108056134_minAPI15_maxAPI22(armeabi-v7a)(480dpi).apk
         SHA1: 24:BB:24:C0:5E:47:E0:AE:FA:68:A5:8A:76:61:79:D9:B6:13:A6:00

Much easier way to view the signing certificate:

jarsigner.exe -verbose -verify -certs myapk.apk

This will only show the DN, so if you have two certs with the same DN, you might have to compare by fingerprint.