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Ethical Hacking Academy · Lesson

Android App Structure

APK internals.

The APK File

An Android app ships as an APK (Android Package). It is really a ZIP archive containing the compiled code, resources, and metadata.

Because it is a ZIP, you can simply unzip it to inspect its contents, which is the first step in mobile pentesting.

unzip app.apk -d app_extracted/

Inside the APK

An extracted APK contains:

  • AndroidManifest.xml: app configuration.
  • classes.dex: compiled bytecode.
  • res/ and resources.arsc: resources.
  • lib/: native libraries.
  • META-INF/: signing info.

All lessons in this course

  1. Android App Structure
  2. Static Analysis of APKs
  3. Dynamic Analysis with Frida
  4. Insecure Storage and Comms
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