Application authenticity verification in digital distribution systems

A method for determining application authenticity, comprising:

• receiving a request to authenticate a provider client application;
• based on the received request to authenticate the provider client application, sending a request to perform a push communication to a digital distribution system, wherein the digital distribution system is a distribution source of the provider client application, the request to perform the push communication comprises a short-term shared key;
• receiving a request for resources from the provider client application;
• determining whether the provider client application has the short-term shared key provided to the digital distribution system as part of the request for the push communication;
• and
• providing the requested resources to the provider client application when it is determined that the provider client application has provided the short-term shared key,
• wherein the method is performed using one or more computing devices.

A digital distribution system for performing a machine-executed operation involving instructions, wherein said instructions are instructions which, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause performance of a process including:

• receiving a request to perform a push communication to a provider client application on a particular device from a provider, wherein the request to perform the push communication for the provider client application was generated based on the provider receiving a request to authenticate the provider client application on the particular device and the request to perform the push communication includes a short-term shared key to push to the particular device;
• and
• attempting to send the push communication with the short-term shared key to the particular device associated with the provider client application based at least in part on a record of having distributed the provider client application to the particular device, wherein the record is private to the digital distribution system,
• wherein the provider determines whether to share resources with the particular device based at least in part on successful sending of the short-term shared key to the particular device by the digital distribution system.