Develop Reference

Complete terminal control on android

I have been trying to run a few Linux commands on my android phone with
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(COMMAND);
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
And noticed that I can only run specific commands and get the proper output even if the device is rooted with SuperSU (I have also tested it with a device without SuperSU on it).
For example, if I run ls and try to put it on a screen (through a TextView) as follows:
public void onBtnClick(View view) {
try {
EditText commandLine = findViewById(R.id.commandText);
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(commandLine.getText().toString());
BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
((TextView) findViewById(R.id.mainTextView)).setText(((TextView) findViewById(R.id.mainTextView)).getText() + "\n" + in.readLine());
commandLine.setText("");
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
the output is acct which makes sense.
But on the other hand, if lets say I run pwd it gives me the following error:
W/System.err: java.io.IOException: Error running exec(). Command:
[pwd] Working Directory: null Environment: null
I did some research online and stumbled upon Termux that can have complete control over the phone through a terminal which is exactly what I'm looking to make (for my own learning and testing purposes).
And although it's just an emulator it can do exactly what I want but the only problem is that it requires I input the commands through the terminal.
What I'm here for is to sort of replicate what Termux does for myself so that I could run Linux commands properly from the Java code of the application, not requiring the user to actually input commands.
Can anyone help me with where to start and the basics of running those commands properly on my device?

Termux states that it doesn't work as a traditional Linux bash does since it sets its own virtual-ish environment when first setting up in its data directory in /data/data/com.termux/files/usr see here and here
Also, according to the official android docs, the exec(command) method,
Executes the specified string command in a separate process.
This is a convenience method. An invocation of the form exec(command)
behaves in exactly the same way as the invocation exec(command, null,
null).
So if it's a separate process, when executing a command, it will run it inside that process' directory (Each process in Linux gets its directory and is assigned an PID which os uses). So what the ls command gives you is simply whatever's inside that process' directory. You should be somewhere like /proc/31415/ and there's only a acct file (cgroup in regular Linux).
What you should be doing is running the command inside a directory by declaring it when invoking getRuntime().exec() see the link above to find the right one you'll need. I'd suggest using the override which handles all the parameters.
You'll need something like this:
String[] cmd = {"mkdir", "testDir"};
File env = new File(getFilesDir().getAbsolutePath());
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd, null, env);
Also, it doesn't hurt to take a look at Termux's installer code (exec(). It'll give you a good overlook to setting up your environment as well as working with basic commands.
Also, I think you've done it already but double check to make sure that you're requesting WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission for your application.

Getting root permissions on android app within native code

I recently jumped into an android development tutorials and doing my own app for the sake of learning. I want to get root permissions within my code in a proper way. So not by calling /system/xbin/su but by using something like seteuid(0). Unfortunately seteuid method does not work for me.
I am testing app on a real device, which I rooted, enabled debugging mode and well I clearly see that when using a call to /system/xbin/su my app requests root permissions from system, which does not happen with seteuid and seteguid (setuid and setguid do not work either but I would not expect those to do it as they are capable only in lowering the permissions).
Please, advice on where to look for a proper code implementation for requesting root permissions like it would do a top notch developer. Maybe some native api call? Or does everyone just use a call to su to get the needed access?

The usual way in Linux of elevating privileges -- that is, to run an application with greater privileges than the logged-in user -- is to set the SUID flag on the executable (e.g., chmod ug+s ...). This will make the process take the identity of the binary's owner (usually root), rather than the logged-in user.
This is tricky to do effectively on Android, even on a rooted device. First, you won't be able to install an app using the usual (APK) mechanisms that includes binaries with SUID permissions. Second, an Android app is not an executable in the usual sense -- a single executable handles the launching of all apps.
Still, if you want to experiment on the command line, it should be possible to set the SUID flag on binaries, in at least some filesystem locations.
If you have a rooted Android, then very likely there is some infrastructure already in place to control privilege elevation. Most likely the "su" command will work (because there will be kernel mods to make it work), and it will be provided either with credentials or with some other way to control which apps can use it. I believe that, as you suggest, calling "su" is the usual way to do privilege elevation in apps on rooted Android. It is fraught with difficulties, however. There's a document https://su.chainfire.eu/ that explains how "su" is typically implemented in rooted Android devices, and gives some guidance on how to use it properly.

Just in case posting my solution to the problem which I did in Java (no native code is needed here):
protected void hideRoot() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su");
DataOutputStream dos = new DataOutputStream(p.getOutputStream());
dos.writeBytes("mount -o remount,rw /system\n");
dos.writeBytes("mv /system/xbin/su /system/xbin/suhidden\n");
dos.writeBytes("exit\n");
dos.flush();
p.waitFor();
}

How to run root commands from Android application?

I want to write an application which roots the device on which it is installed, I mean by installing this app you will be able to root your device without a computer, just like the app in the following link,
http://www.kingoapp.com/root-tutorials/how-to-root-android-without-computer.htm
I've searched a lot on how to do that using Java code for Android devices, but there was no clear solution to me. Based on my research, I think we need the following steps:
1- Being able to use shell commands in Android using Runtime.getRuntime().exec();
2- Executing a command that gains root privileges (I think su, but this needs a rooted device to be executed).
3- Initiate a root command that will root the device.
I couldn't find a code explanation on how to do the steps above. I want to understand this process first, the commands that can be used in it, then I want to try to implement it by myself. Since there are many apps on the store that offer this feature, then implementing it must be feasible.
Could anyone please explain to me how to implement this process?
Also, is there a possibility to write a code for the opposite process, which is unrooting the device?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.

To run root commands, you have to use the following format:
public void RunAsRoot(String[] cmds){
Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su");
DataOutputStream os = new DataOutputStream(p.getOutputStream());
for (String tmpCmd : cmds) {
os.writeBytes(tmpCmd+"\n");
}
os.writeBytes("exit\n");
os.flush();
}
where you pass in an array of strings, each string being a command that needs to be executed. For example:
String[] cmds = {"sysrw", "rm /data/local/bootanimation.zip", "sysro"};

Running a UiAutomator test via android app

I have some test built, and my testing department can't figure out how to use the terminal. Uiautomator test are .jar files so must be ran via terminal. So for convenience, I want to make an app for them with the tests in a list to choose from to execute. Is this possible? My research leads me to believe that the devices will need to be rooted. If that is the case I will not be able to do it. So is there a workaround to this? This is what I have tried:
Runtime rt = Runtime.getRuntime();
try {
Process process = rt.exec("su");
DataOutputStream os = new DataOutputStream(process.getOutputStream());
os.writeBytes("uiautomator runtest test.jar -c ui.test.getData\n");
os.flush();
os.writeBytes("exit\n");
os.flush();
process.waitFor();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
This code will produce this :
java.io.IOException: Error running exec(). Command: [su] Working Directory: null Environment: null
Please help me with a way to get this to work. Thanks!

Do you have suggestions of something I could do to make it easy for my testing team to run a test of mine?
Create a desktop app that runs the test.
Or, just put a nice batch file/shell script in front of it. Perhaps one that launches the test and displays a photo of a cute kitten in the tester's Web browser.
(testers love cute kittens)
Or, set up a continuous integration server, so testers are not manually running the tests at all -- the tests are run automatically, and the testers are simply examining the results. I presume that somebody has a recipe for Hudson/Jenkins/whatever that can run an uiautomator test. And there may be a separate recipe for integrating photos of cute kittens into the test result reports, though it is possible that you'll be stuck writing your own for that.

Android SSH Example Code

I want to create an android activity for setting up an SSH Session with a remote device (through Wifi) and executing some linux commands on the remote device. Anyone got a quick, short example for connecting, authenticating and sending remote commands using Trilead libraries in Android ? Connectbot source (the only place to find the source for the unmaintained library) is quite vast and time consuming to go through if one is just trying to do a quick SSH Connection/ Command execution. I had found the sshJ library earlier, which had nicely documented examples and tips but unfortunately Android lacks some Java.Util classes required for sshJ.
I am looking for something in Trilead like (this is from the sshJ example I found earlier) :
final SSHClient ssh = new SSHClient();
ssh.loadKnownHosts();
ssh.connect("localhost");
try {
ssh.authPublickey(System.getProperty("user.name"));
final Session session = ssh.startSession();
try {
final Command cmd = session.exec("ping -c 1 google.com");
System.out.print(cmd.getOutputAsString());
System.out.println("\n** exit status: " + cmd.getExitStatus());
} finally {
session.close();
}
} finally {
ssh.disconnect();
}

If you are okay with restricting your app to Android 2.3+ (Gingerbread), then you can use sshj. You will have to create the SSHClient object with this
Config.