Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
[WeAreDevelopers World Conference] Reversing An...
Search
Marc Obrador
June 30, 2021
Programming
0
660
[WeAreDevelopers World Conference] Reversing Android Apps
Marc Obrador
June 30, 2021
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Marc Obrador
See All by Marc Obrador
[Droidcon London 2023] REST in Peace: A Journey Through API Protection
marcobrador
0
110
[Droidcon Berlin 2023] Obfuscation in Mobile Apps
marcobrador
0
1.3k
[mDevCamp 2020] Reversing Android Apps
marcobrador
3
2.8k
Introduction to Mobile App Security
marcobrador
2
380
[ICE71 CyberSecurity Networking Night] Mobile App Security: A developer's introduction
marcobrador
0
780
[GDG BCN 2019] Introduction to Android App Security
marcobrador
1
910
[DroidCon Lisbon 2019] Intro to Android App Security
marcobrador
2
470
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
Amazon RDS 向けに提供されている MCP Server と仕組みを調べてみた/jawsug-okayama-2025-aurora-mcp
takahashiikki
1
110
Deep Dive into Kotlin Flow
jmatsu
1
340
testingを眺める
matumoto
1
140
MCPでVibe Working。そして、結局はContext Eng(略)/ Working with Vibe on MCP And Context Eng
rkaga
5
2.3k
1から理解するWeb Push
dora1998
7
1.9k
Zendeskのチケットを Amazon Bedrockで 解析した
ryokosuge
3
310
実用的なGOCACHEPROG実装をするために / golang.tokyo #40
mazrean
1
270
パッケージ設計の黒魔術/Kyoto.go#63
lufia
3
440
Performance for Conversion! 分散トレーシングでボトルネックを 特定せよ
inetand
0
160
MCPとデザインシステムに立脚したデザインと実装の融合
yukukotani
4
1.4k
The Past, Present, and Future of Enterprise Java with ASF in the Middle
ivargrimstad
0
110
開発チーム・開発組織の設計改善スキルの向上
masuda220
PRO
20
11k
Featured
See All Featured
Responsive Adventures: Dirty Tricks From The Dark Corners of Front-End
smashingmag
252
21k
Unsuck your backbone
ammeep
671
58k
VelocityConf: Rendering Performance Case Studies
addyosmani
332
24k
Build The Right Thing And Hit Your Dates
maggiecrowley
37
2.9k
Principles of Awesome APIs and How to Build Them.
keavy
126
17k
GraphQLの誤解/rethinking-graphql
sonatard
72
11k
JavaScript: Past, Present, and Future - NDC Porto 2020
reverentgeek
51
5.6k
Designing Dashboards & Data Visualisations in Web Apps
destraynor
231
53k
Fashionably flexible responsive web design (full day workshop)
malarkey
407
66k
Optimizing for Happiness
mojombo
379
70k
YesSQL, Process and Tooling at Scale
rocio
173
14k
Making Projects Easy
brettharned
117
6.4k
Transcript
Reversing Android Apps
Marc Obrador Lead Architect @ Build38 Barcelona
[email protected]
@marcobrador /in/marc-obrador
None
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering It’s illegal (in the EU)!
None
Josep Bernad iOS Albert Sunyer UI
Artà is in Mallorca ABF takes place (usually) in June
COVID-19 pushed it to … ?
None
Get to know the app Step 0
Get to know the app
Get to know the app
Get to know the app
Get to know the app
Static Analysis Step 1
Static Analysis
Getting the APK
Decompiling the app https://ibotpeaches.github.io/Apktool/ $ brew install apktool
Decompiling the app
None
None
None
None
None
Let’s keep looking around
Wait… “discount codes”?
App users get a discount for events
None
Let’s take a closer look…
None
HTTP Basic Authorisation = Base64(“username:password”)
None
HTTP Basic Authorisation = Base64(“username:password”) username = “string1” xor “string2”
pasword = “string3” xor “string2”
None
Protecting against static analysis ProGuard is a good start… for
regular apps • It’s just method renaming and code shrinking • Tools for reversing ProGuard exist: http://apk-deguard.com/ Other (paid) alternatives exist for obfuscation Writing sensitve code in native (NDK) is a good idea
Dynamic Analysis Step 2
Dynamic Analysis
Dynamic Analysis
Network Sniffing a.k.a MITM
Network Sniffing https://www.charlesproxy.com/
Setting Up Charles Proxy
Setting Up Charles Proxy
Setting Up Charles Proxy
First attempt…
First attempt…
Setting Up Charles Proxy
Setting Up Charles Proxy
Let’s try again…
None
None
None
None
None
• Use certificate pinning • Implement Root/Debugger/Emulator/Hooking Framework detection •
Try to detect app tampering Protecting against dynamic analysis
Using Certificate Pinning Source: https://developer.android.com/training/articles/security-config
Tampering with the App Step 3
Assuming the app implemented Certificate Pinning…
$ adb install “Downloads/Artà Beer Festival_v1.2.5_apkpure.com.apk” Performing Streamed Install Success
$ adb shell am start com.marcobrador.android.artabeerfestival/.SplashActivity Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category .LAUNCHER] cmp=com.marcobrador.android.artabeerfestival/.SplashActivity }
Let’s try to remove it
None
None
None
Time to give it a try!
None
None
Preventing Repackaging
Looks like we are done here Looks like we are
done here
This code can be removed, too!
Closing Thoughts
None
None
None
Thank you!