Continuing from the previous post (Part 1: Android Mobile Penetration Testing), let’s install some important tools. The virtual device is used so that you can test a combination of different versions of android mobile devices and mobile operating systems for vulnerabilities with the tools mentioned in this post.

 

Android Studio

Download and Install Android SDK from https://developer.android.com/studio

After installation, use Android SDK manager and install at least two of the android platforms (Android 10.0 – Q, Android 9.0 – Pie). Create virtual devices through Android Virtual Device Manager (AVD) Pixel 2 Android 9.0:

Fig:1 Creating Virtual Device

 

Start the virtual device once installed. It may look different to the below screenshot depending on Android device installed:

Fig:2 Virtual Device Pixel2

 

Drozer

Download drozer_2.x.x.deb from https://github.com/FSecureLABS/drozer/releases

1. Drozer may require other python packages like python-openssl, python-protobuf etc depending on existing Kali or any Linux distro (distributions). Install using apt-get as below:
   1. apt-get install python-twisted python-openssl python-protobuf
   2. dpkg -i drozer_2.4.4.deb

2. Run drozer from a command line and verify – output should be as below:

Fig:3 Installing Drozer

 

Objection (Frida)

This is a Mobile Exploitation tool kit powered by Frida. It helps to assess the Mobile App without the need for Jail broken devices.

Install Objection (Frida) using the below from a command line:

pip3 install -U objection

Sometimes it may take little longer to install with its packages.

Fig:4 Completed Drozer installation

 

JADX

Install Jadx by downloading from the below Github location:

https://github.com/skylot/jadx/releases

 

Damn Insecure and Vulnerable App for Android (DIVA)

Download DIVA Mobile App from the below Github location:

https://github.com/payatu/diva-android

 

How are these Tools related?

As you may be aware, the Mobile App .apk file is another form of .zip file.

1. To extract .apk to source code, rename the .apk file as .zip file.
2. Extract the zip file into a directory of choice.

Fig:5 Extrating .apk file

3. Convert the extracted classes.dex to .jar using dex2jar:

 

Fig:6 Converting .dex to .jar

4. Run jadx-gui in terminal – the Graphical User Interface (GUI) will then open:

 

Fig:7 Extracting .jar to source code

 

 

Fig:8 Extracted Source code from jar using Jadx

 

5. Alternatively, instead of using the dex2jar and jadx-gui, we can convert the apk to java source code in one step using apktool. This tool can be downloaded from the link https://ibotpeaches.github.io/Apktool/

Fig:9 Extracting Source code from .apk using apktool

 

Install the Application (apk) into the Virtual Device

Run the below command:

adb -s emulator-5554 install Free\ Samples_v1.0.0_apkpure.com.apk

Now the Free Samples_v1.0.0_apkpure.com.apk into Virtual Device:

 

Fig:10 After installing App to Virtual Device

 

 

We have been focussing on different tools used in Mobile Security testing, its usage and how to install Mobile application into a virtual device in this post. In the coming weeks we will be further looking at different kind of vulnerabilities addressed in Mobile applications.