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Learning Pentesting for Android Devices
Learning Pentesting for Android Devices

Learning Pentesting for Android Devices: Android's popularity makes it a prime target for attacks, which is why this tutorial is so essential. It takes you from security basics to forensics and penetration testing in easy, user-friendly steps.

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Learning Pentesting for Android Devices

Chapter 2. Preparing the Battlefield

In the previous chapter, we learned the basics of Android security and its architecture. In this chapter, we will read about setting up our Android Pentesting lab, which will include downloading and configuring Android SDK and Eclipse. We'll understand ADB in depth and learn how to create and configure Android Virtual Devices (AVDs).

We will cover the following aspects in this chapter:

  • Android Debug Bridge

  • Introduction and setting up of Burp Suite

  • Introduction to APKTool

Setting up the development environment


In order to build Android applications or create an Android virtual device, we need to set up the development environment in order for those applications to run. So, the first thing we need to do is download Java Development Kit (JDK), which includes Java Runtime Environment:

  1. To download JDK, we need to go to http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html and download JDK 7 depending on the platform we are on.

    It is as simple as downloading it and running the downloaded executable file. In the following screenshot, you can see Java being installed on my system:

  2. Once we have downloaded and installed JDK, we need to set up the environment variables on our system so that Java can be executed from any path.

    For Windows users, we need to right-click on the My Computer icon and select the Properties option.

  3. Next, we need to select the Advanced system settings option from the top tabs list:

  4. Once we are in the System Properties dialog, in the...

Useful utilities for Android Pentest


Now, let us have a detailed look at some of the useful utilities for Android Pentest, such as Android Debug Bridge, Burp Suite, and APKTool.

Android Debug Bridge

Android Debug Bridge is a client-server program that allows the user to interact with the emulator or the connected Android device. It includes a client (that runs on the system), a server handling the communication (also running on the system), and a daemon running on the emulator and devices as a background process. The default port used by the client for ADB communication is 5037 in all cases where the device uses ports ranging from 5555 to 5585.

Let's go ahead and start interacting with the launched emulator by running the adb devices command. It'll show that the emulator is up and running as well as connected to ADB:

C:\Users\adi0x90\Downloads\adt-bundle\sdk\platform-tools>adb devices
List of devices attached
emulator-5554   device

In some cases, even when the emulator is running or the...

Summary


In this chapter, we went through setting up an Android penetration-testing environment using Android SDK, ADB, APKTool, and Burp Suite. These are the most important tools with which an Android penetration tester should be familiar with.

In the next chapter, we'll learn how to reverse engineer and audit Android applications. We will also be using tools such as APKTool, dex2jar, jd-gui, and some of our own command-line kung fu.

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What you will learn

  • Understand the basics of Android Security Architecture and Permission Model Bypassing Use and explore Android Debug Bridge (ADB) Study the internals of an Android application from a security viewpoint Learn to reverse an Android application Perform the Traffic Analysis on Android devices Dive into the concepts of Android forensics and data acquisition Acquire the knowledge of Application Level vulnerabilities and exploitation such as Webkit-Based Exploitation, Root Exploits, and Use After free vulnerabilities Write a penetration testing report for an Android application auditing project
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Publication date : Mar 26, 2014
Length: 154 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783288984
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Length: 154 pages
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Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783288984
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Android Security Cookbook
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Practical Mobile Forensics
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Learning Pentesting for Android Devices
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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
Getting Started with Android Security Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Preparing the Battlefield Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Reversing and Auditing Android Apps Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Traffic Analysis for Android Devices Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Android Forensics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Playing with SQLite Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Lesser-known Android Attacks Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
ARM Exploitation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Writing the Pentest Report Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.3
(11 Ratings)
5 star 63.6%
4 star 18.2%
3 star 9.1%
2 star 0%
1 star 9.1%
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Fabio Radin Jun 19, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I really love this book! "Learning Pentesting for Android Devices" is a book for all curious guys that want to understand how things are working inside their Android device. The goal of the book is to explore which vulnerability and issues could be present in an Android application and how to prevent and to reveal them. This is just an interesting argument, but what is really more interesting is the way to reach this goal: becoming for a couple of hours an "hacker" and jump on the dark side of the development! Yes, because decompiling, reverse engineering, exploiting and attacking will be really more clear to you after reading this book!The book starts with a couple of chapters about Android howtos: what is an Android app, how it is generated and which tools should be used to achieve the goal. After that, Aditya brings you on the reverse path: in chapter 3, starting from an app, he brings you to the source code! There is a very clear description about which tools could be used, how to use them and which limits you could experiencing during this adventure. In chapter 4, the classical network attacks are explored: network traffic analysis, proxy interception, man in the middle and so on.More or less after an half of the book, Aditya starts with a very not so common description of Android vulnerability and attacks (from the device point of view!). This is really uncommon and very very interesting for understanding how the Android phone you have in pocket is made. A specific chapter is dedicated to SQLite, one of the most common SQL database deployed in several millions of devices and to the WebView, one of the most common Android widget.In the end, even if this book is for every developer with a basic knowledge about Android programming, I must suggest it to everyone has intention to start and develop an Android app. Your app will be surely more secure in the end and there will be no risk about finding the source code of your app in internet!
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upasana gupta Aug 18, 2017
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Love the book. Explains everything beautifully . Recommended for beginners.
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Amol Bhure Mar 31, 2017
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For both beginners and moderate or pro users, this book is nicely written by author.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
sdash Apr 09, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I got the book delivered to me a week back, and have gone through all the chapters as well. The book really serves the one purpose for which it has been written for - To give an introduction to the various security aspects in Android, such as finding vulnerabilities in Applications, auditing them, reverse engineering, forensics and so on.The ARM Exploitation chapter was quite tough to understand, but after 2-3 reads, everything made perfect sense to me. I wish the book was a bit longer, but still it's fine as everything is to the point. Do not expect to find much theoretical topics in the book, as it is completely hands-on. Even some of the latest vulnerabilities such as the Webview exploitation and XAS was given in how-to manner in the book, which was easy to follow.Overall a nice Android Security book, and must to be have by anyone interested into Android Security.
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Vinod Tiwari Apr 14, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I would like to Thank the Author for writing such an awesome book on android pentest. I was keen to learn mobile security specially android hacking and I was unable to get relevant information on internet as everything was scattered. After finding and reading this book I can clearly say that, yes I have much knowledge of mobile security. This book is an eye opener and a perfect tablet to take down your mobile security learning fever.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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