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We often find our greatest challenges — and lessons — in the most unexpected places. For me, it was during a casual, personal engagement with a client. They had an Android app, and the topic of security came up. While my experience lay elsewhere, the world of Android pentesting had always been a “someday” skill. Seeing this as a catalyst, I decided to dive in headfirst.
What I didn’t expect was to find a critical secret access key buried within the app, a discovery that highlighted a crucial difference in modern mobile application architecture.
My first step was reconnaissance. Like any good researcher, I started with HackTricks, an incredible resource for offensive security techniques. Armed with some initial methodology, I reached for the essential tool in any Android reverser’s arsenal: apktool.
apktool d TestApp.apk
I: Using Apktool 2.11.1 on TestApp.apk with 8 threads
I: Baksmaling classes.dex...
I: Baksmaling classes2.dex...
I: Baksmaling classes3.dex...
I: Baksmaling classes4.dex...
I: Baksmaling classes5.dex...
I: Loading resource table...
I: Decoding file-resources...
I: Loading resource table from file: /Users/******/Library/apktool/framework/1.apk
I: Decoding values */* XMLs...
I: Decoding…