Android Pentesting 101: A Novice’s Handbook to Getting Started

Android pentesting is the process of evaluating the security of an Android application by identifying its vulnerabilities and weaknesses. It involves analyzing the application’s source code, binary files, and network traffic to find security flaws. There are mainly 2 parts Static and Dynamic analysis

Static analysis involves examining an application’s code and configuration files without executing it, while dynamic analysis involves testing the application in a running state to observe its behavior and interactions. Both approaches are important for testing the security of an Android application.

This blog will be covering all these aspects.

Table of contents

1. Setting up the testing environment
   a. Emulators
   b. How to install and access the application
   c. Useful adb commands
   d. Extracting the APK from the device
2. Static Analysis
   a. Reverse Engineering
   i. DEX → JAR → JAVA
   ii. APK → JAVA
   iii. What to check in the code
   b. Decompiling and Recompiling
   i. APK Tool
   c.Manifest file analysis
3. Dynamic Analysis
   a. Setting up the proxy
   i. Configure the Burp Proxy listener
   ii. Configure your device to use the proxy
   iii. Install a CA certificate on your Android device
   iv. Test the configuration / Intercept the traffic