Is there a way I can get the hierchary view/layout of other running android apps? If that's not possible, could I possibly unpack the app's .apk file and get the information there? For example, there's a setting in developer options that allows you to get the bounds of every elememt on the screen like so
EDIT
I have come to realize that this is not allowed and goes completely against the Android SDK. I apologize for this error and will look more closely in the future.
I have found out that Google blocks any of this because it would require me to inject my own code into other apps, which is not allowed due to malicious behavior in past apps.
Related
I am hoping to implement some security for an Android app to prevent people from using the code unless it was installed on the correct device by the company. My first choice would be to make sure the app was installed through the Google Play Store, but this app will not be available there.
I have determined that one security measure that will work for my use case is checking some of the information in the Build class. I am concerned that there could be the possibility that some of the fields in the class may not stay the same, even if the same model of device is always used.
What portions of the Build class are subject to change for a specific model of device and what fields should never change?
In the end all of these system configs are just .xml files residing on the device somewhere around /data/system/sysconfig which you can modify in any way you want if you have write access (aka root) so I would recommend starting from making sure that the user running your app does not have root privileges. There are some FOSS libraries for it, you can start from there.
Sometimes I really need to know if anybody has used my phone while I wasn't home? Is there any app to reveal such a thing? something like "launched apps history".
I don't believe that there is a built in provision for achieving this, but there are a number of available applications that allow you to monitor this, such as KidLogger. KidLogger is somewhat outdated, but I think there are other apps available too.
The other option is to download a log viewing program (or export the logs to your computer) like CatLog so that you can view the system logs. Application calls should be visible in the logs. I do believe that this requires root access though.
I've tried a number of searches but can't find anything applicable, it may be because I'm just not asking the right question! So please feel free to redirect me if this has been covered elsewhere.
I'm new to Android and to development, but have an idea to use an Application to check other simple apps on the device for potential security holes (this is to design a prototype as part of a course of study).
Before I go any further, is it feasible to use an application to check through/parse/inspect the source code of another app, searching for instances of text/commands/permissions etc (similar to a grep in Linux for example)? Any starting points would be greatly appreciated, things like inter-app communication, converting code into text, searching through that text and reporting and the like.
I think the key might be using an app to inspect a Manifest file of another for permissions settings etc. I've learnt that Dalvik compiled code has big differences to the original Android 'Java'. Is it even possible to use an app to read the Manifest file of another app?
If u use Android Studio try 'code inspect' , 'code analyze'.
I'm trying to install Kik Messenger twice. I have two accounts and don't like to log out because I lose all of my conversation history. I'm currently using Titanium backup's profile feature, which is a very nice fix, but it's still a pain having to switch back and forth between profiles. I might be looking for "perfect" when perfect doesn't exist. I am completely new to modding apks and Android in general, all of my work on this so far has been "trial and error". Anyways, here's what I have:
I have the Google Play version of Kik installed on my phone. I have extracted that app and modified the package name successfully using apktool. However, when I try to install, I get an error saying something about duplicate provider authority. So I did some research and learned that I'm supposed to edit this part of the AndroidManifest. So I have played around with that a little bit and after I change the authorities, I am able to install the modded app. However, it crashes immediately.
Does anyone know how to fix this problem with the provider/authorities?
The issue you're hitting is that the app has registered certain classes to handle particular events. These need to be unique across all installed apps and point to existing classes in the app that will perform some activity with the supplied information.
You bypassed the safety check when installing by changing the defined handlers in the Manifest but that didn't really fix it as they still need to actually point to a valid, working class that can handle the requests/events.
You would need to decompile, rename the classes involved and all references made to them and recompile the whole app to really fix the problem. However, I'd assume that it would likely be against the license. If the code is open source then it wouldn't be too big a task to rename some classes & packages then build the app. If it's closed source then it is a harder task.
What you can do is either set up your device to use multiple accounts (the OS not the app) as each user has a separate data storage and preference location that should allow you to have two configurations. Or you can request that the developers include some sort of multiple account handling or easy account swap feature.
I have been searching around this site and google for a couple of hours now, and I can't find anything about this. Maybe because I use the wrong search terms, I don't know.
I am making an Application List for an App of mine, and for the most part this is easy enough. My problem is that when I come across an updated system application, I need to get information about the original package file (The one in /system/app rather than the updated one in /data/app), information like version and file name.
Now, I could extract this as root from /data/system/packages.xml, but I thought that there might be a better native solution using PackageManager like with the rest of the application list?