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Apk.sh is a Bash script that makes reverse engineering Android apps easier

github.com

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Re: Apk.sh is a Bash script that makes reverse engineering Android apps easier

#11

Post by tpush »

black3r wrote: post #6
danuker wrote: post #2

Scripts like this empowering the end-user is why I consider the Android ecosystem superior.

i used to be an android poweruser in high school and college, I rooted my phones, played around with lots of custom roms, had a terminal emulator and full power of arm debian installed in a chroot environment, tried different keyboard apps, launchers, and all other customization possibilities... then I started working full-time and had way less free time and realized 99% of the time I now use my phone to read news si…

Why the switch, though? You can check the news and take quick photos on an Android, too; The vast majority of Android phones aren't being used for tinkering.

Re: Apk.sh is a Bash script that makes reverse engineering Android apps easier

#12

Post by jacob019 »

saagarjha wrote: post #7
jacob019 wrote: post #5

It seems to be made for injecting Frida into APKs. I'm having trouble understanding what Frida is. Can I do something cool with it?

Frida lets you hook behavior in apps. Think of it like mocking but for reverse engineers.

Would this help to reverse engineer an encrypted API?

Re: Apk.sh is a Bash script that makes reverse engineering Android apps easier

#13

Post by ta988 »

danuker wrote: post #9
black3r wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i used to be an android poweruser in high school and college, I rooted my phones, played around with lots of custom roms, had a terminal emulator and full power of arm debian installed in a chroot environment, tried different keyboard apps, launchers, and all other customization possibilities... then I started working full-time and had way less free time and realized 99% of the time I now use my phone to read news si…

Among the top 5 deathbed regrets is working too much. Many indicators of quality of life face diminishing returns past a $30k/yr (2005) threshold.

I switched to a job that gives me more free time, can't be happier. Money past a comfortable level (enough for food, living and some savings) clearly can't buy not having to run around everywhere and think about your next move all the time. I've seen so many people regretting they spent their life just for their job(s) chasing they didn't even knew what. I feel so sorry when I ask how are you and the reply is "busy".

Re: Apk.sh is a Bash script that makes reverse engineering Android apps easier

#14

Post by freedomben »

black3r wrote: post #6
danuker wrote: post #2

Scripts like this empowering the end-user is why I consider the Android ecosystem superior.

i used to be an android poweruser in high school and college, I rooted my phones, played around with lots of custom roms, had a terminal emulator and full power of arm debian installed in a chroot environment, tried different keyboard apps, launchers, and all other customization possibilities... then I started working full-time and had way less free time and realized 99% of the time I now use my phone to read news si…

This is fascinating, I really want to understand.

Was Android (even stock) insufficient for reading news sites and quick photos? Or is iOS much better for you at those tasks? If that's all you need, then I would consider both Android or iOS sufficient, but I don't quite get why you'd give up so many options and capabilities to switch, unless iOS is much better at reading news and taking photos.

Maybe an analogy to help with my question. If all I need to do is unscrew Phillips number 2 screws and the occasional flathead, and I already had a great power drill with a bunch of bits in the kit (and had mastered it), why then buy a different power drill that that takes a proprietary bit and can only do Phillips and flathead? At some point I might have a need to do torx or hex or square, etc. Wouldn't you be better off having the capability should you need it? Why is it better to not have the capability?

Re: Apk.sh is a Bash script that makes reverse engineering Android apps easier

#15

Post by t00 »

black3r wrote: post #6
danuker wrote: post #2

Scripts like this empowering the end-user is why I consider the Android ecosystem superior.

i used to be an android poweruser in high school and college, I rooted my phones, played around with lots of custom roms, had a terminal emulator and full power of arm debian installed in a chroot environment, tried different keyboard apps, launchers, and all other customization possibilities... then I started working full-time and had way less free time and realized 99% of the time I now use my phone to read news si…

Sounds like a step back, both in terms of creativity achieved by tinkering, and a downgrade of the quality of photos and videos.

Re: Apk.sh is a Bash script that makes reverse engineering Android apps easier

#16

Post by otachack »

Waterluvian wrote: post #3
danuker wrote: post #2

Scripts like this empowering the end-user is why I consider the Android ecosystem superior.

*superior when evaluated against one of many different criteria for what’s important to many different users. (A good time to remind tech people: 98% of users are not our user persona)

Right, but the transparency and access allow the 2% to put in the work and advocate for the rest.

Re: Apk.sh is a Bash script that makes reverse engineering Android apps easier

#17

Post by jefficient »

jacob019 wrote: post #12
saagarjha wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frida lets you hook behavior in apps. Think of it like mocking but for reverse engineers.

Would this help to reverse engineer an encrypted API?

Yes. For example you could hook the function that encrypts the outgoing payload and print it out before it is encrypted. And then for decryption you could hook the function that decrypts the payload as it comes in print out the result.

Going further, the API likely uses some secret key for encryption/decryption and you could hook that value out of the app as well.

Re: Apk.sh is a Bash script that makes reverse engineering Android apps easier

#18

Post by varenc »

jacob019 wrote: post #5

It seems to be made for injecting Frida into APKs. I'm having trouble understanding what Frida is. Can I do something cool with it?

Sadly the name "Frida" suffers from poor googleability. But here you go: https://frida.re/

Basically it's _the_ reverse engineering toolkit for security researchers. Has excellent support across Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, etc.

Re: Apk.sh is a Bash script that makes reverse engineering Android apps easier

#19

Post by sodality2 »

freedomben wrote: post #14
black3r wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i used to be an android poweruser in high school and college, I rooted my phones, played around with lots of custom roms, had a terminal emulator and full power of arm debian installed in a chroot environment, tried different keyboard apps, launchers, and all other customization possibilities... then I started working full-time and had way less free time and realized 99% of the time I now use my phone to read news si…

This is fascinating, I really want to understand. Was Android (even stock) insufficient for reading news sites and quick photos? Or is iOS much better for you at those tasks? If that's all you need, then I would consider both Android or iOS sufficient, but I don't quite get why you'd give up so many options and capabilities to switch, unless iOS is much better at reading news and taking photos. Maybe an analogy to he…

As someone who switched to iPhone in almost the same way as parent comment, it really does do those things far better. I frequently had to hard-reboot my android, install different versions of apps, etc because of something going wrong. Photos not saving was the last straw for me. It wasn't even because I was a particularly power user - I customized everything on it, but even after resetting it and wanting a clean slate, it still couldn't handle basic tasks. I just became sick of it and switched to an iPhone. This was on one of LG's flagships, as well.

Edit: I'll add a bit here - I didn't realize just how much maintenance and fixing I was doing on android, because I was so used to it. I would frequently have to fix some issue and I didn't think twice because it was something I either did often, or I just wasn't in a rush and I went into "fix broken tech" auto pilot mode. But I started to realize how often I was doing it and how it wasn't really normal to have to do that, because I would just zone out and focus on fixing the issue at hand.

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