$30 off During Our Annual Pro Sale. View Details »
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
680
[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
790
[GDG BCN 2019] Introduction to Android App Security
marcobrador
1
910
[DroidCon Lisbon 2019] Intro to Android App Security
marcobrador
2
480
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
ローターアクトEクラブ アメリカンナイト:川端 柚菜 氏(Japan O.K. ローターアクトEクラブ 会長):2720 Japan O.K. ロータリーEクラブ2025年12月1日卓話
2720japanoke
0
440
MAP, Jigsaw, Code Golf 振り返り会 by 関東Kaggler会|Jigsaw 15th Solution
hasibirok0
0
210
バックエンドエンジニアによる Amebaブログ K8s 基盤への CronJobの導入・運用経験
sunabig
0
130
関数の挙動書き換える
takatofukui
4
770
『実践MLOps』から学ぶ DevOps for ML
nsakki55
2
550
配送計画の均等化機能を提供する取り組みについて(⽩⾦鉱業 Meetup Vol.21@六本⽊(数理最適化編))
izu_nori
0
120
AIと協働し、イベントソーシングとアクターモデルで作る後悔しないアーキテクチャ Regret-Free Architecture with AI, Event Sourcing, and Actors
tomohisa
5
18k
Building AI Agents with TypeScript #TSKaigiHokuriku
izumin5210
6
1.2k
宅宅自以為的浪漫:跟 AI 一起為自己辦的研討會寫一個售票系統
eddie
0
470
[堅牢.py #1] テストを書かない研究者に送る、最初にテストを書く実験コード入門 / Let's start your ML project by writing tests
shunk031
11
6.9k
ソフトウェア設計の課題・原則・実践技法
masuda220
PRO
24
21k
Evolving NEWT’s TypeScript Backend for the AI-Driven Era
xpromx
0
260
Featured
See All Featured
Designing Experiences People Love
moore
142
24k
I Don’t Have Time: Getting Over the Fear to Launch Your Podcast
jcasabona
34
2.5k
Writing Fast Ruby
sferik
630
62k
GitHub's CSS Performance
jonrohan
1032
470k
How Fast Is Fast Enough? [PerfNow 2025]
tammyeverts
3
380
4 Signs Your Business is Dying
shpigford
186
22k
The Illustrated Children's Guide to Kubernetes
chrisshort
51
51k
Optimising Largest Contentful Paint
csswizardry
37
3.5k
CSS Pre-Processors: Stylus, Less & Sass
bermonpainter
359
30k
The Cost Of JavaScript in 2023
addyosmani
55
9.3k
Understanding Cognitive Biases in Performance Measurement
bluesmoon
31
2.7k
Measuring & Analyzing Core Web Vitals
bluesmoon
9
690
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!