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
690
0
Share
[WeAreDevelopers World Conference] Reversing Android Apps
Marc Obrador
June 30, 2021
More Decks by Marc Obrador
See All by Marc Obrador
[Droidcon London 2023] REST in Peace: A Journey Through API Protection
marcobrador
0
120
[Droidcon Berlin 2023] Obfuscation in Mobile Apps
marcobrador
0
1.4k
[mDevCamp 2020] Reversing Android Apps
marcobrador
3
2.9k
Introduction to Mobile App Security
marcobrador
2
390
[ICE71 CyberSecurity Networking Night] Mobile App Security: A developer's introduction
marcobrador
0
800
[GDG BCN 2019] Introduction to Android App Security
marcobrador
1
940
[DroidCon Lisbon 2019] Intro to Android App Security
marcobrador
2
500
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
「エンジニアインターン、どうやって取った?」準備のリアルを語るLT会 Progate BAR
akiomatic
0
100
Signal Forms: Beyond the Basics @ngBaguette 2026 in Paris
manfredsteyer
PRO
0
180
iOS26時代の新規アプリ開発
yuukiw00w
0
220
PHPで使える日時の表現と、その知り方 #frontend_phpcon_do
o0h
PRO
0
130
技術記事、AIに書かせるか、自分で書くか? 〜それでも私が自分の手で書く理由〜 / #QiitaConference
jnchito
2
1.2k
AIとRubyの静的型付け
ukin0k0
0
480
Oxlintのカスタムルールの現況
syumai
5
910
AI 時代のソフトウェア設計の学び方
masuda220
PRO
29
11k
oxlintはeslint/typescript-eslintを置き換えられるのか
shomafujita
2
290
tsserverとは何だったのか、これからどうなるのか
nowaki28
1
430
TSKaigi 2026 TypeScriptバックエンドのオブザーバビリティ戦略 — Datadog × NestJSの実践
taiseiyamamotoan
1
210
AIエージェントと協働するCLI開発 — BunとOpenClawで学んだこと
yoshikouki
1
230
Featured
See All Featured
Redefining SEO in the New Era of Traffic Generation
szymonslowik
1
320
Building Better People: How to give real-time feedback that sticks.
wjessup
370
20k
Jamie Indigo - Trashchat’s Guide to Black Boxes: Technical SEO Tactics for LLMs
techseoconnect
PRO
0
150
How GitHub (no longer) Works
holman
316
150k
DevOps and Value Stream Thinking: Enabling flow, efficiency and business value
helenjbeal
1
210
RailsConf 2023
tenderlove
30
1.5k
Writing Fast Ruby
sferik
630
63k
Tell your own story through comics
letsgokoyo
1
940
The Limits of Empathy - UXLibs8
cassininazir
1
340
The Cost Of JavaScript in 2023
addyosmani
55
10k
RailsConf & Balkan Ruby 2019: The Past, Present, and Future of Rails at GitHub
eileencodes
141
35k
Site-Speed That Sticks
csswizardry
13
1.2k
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!