A practical step-by-step guide to building an Android malware analysis and security testing lab on Ubuntu
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Introduction
When people talk about Android security testing or malware analysis, they often jump straight into reversing, hooking, bypassing protections, or writing detection logic.
But before any of that, there is a much more basic problem: building a lab that is actually usable.
A good Android analysis lab should let you do three things well:
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- Static analysis — inspect APK structure, manifest, resources, code, and native libraries.
- Dynamic analysis — observe runtime behavior, hook functions, and test app logic on a device or emulator.
- Scalable triage — move quickly between tools without constantly fixing your environment.
In this guide, I will show how to build a practical Android app analysis lab on Ubuntu/Debian, using a toolset that covers both security testing and malware analysis workflows.