Five years ago, I wrote an article titled [Android] Everyone Can Reverse Engineer APKs. At that time, I was an Android engineer who, due to work requirements, researched basic Android reverse engineering with my colleagues. Our goal was to achieve a fully automated process: upload an APK, automatically decompile it, insert some strange things, and then repackage it.
Now, due to work requirements, I have revisited and reinforced my knowledge of APK reverse engineering and modification, and have written this series of articles to share with you.
First of all, I want to emphasize that this series is only an “introduction.” By using various tools to decompile and rebuild APKs, it should be sufficient for apps that are not obfuscated. However, if the app has been obfuscated, deeper knowledge of binary is required to unlock it, which is another world.
In any case, this series is suitable for those who have not been exposed to Android app reverse engineering and want to try it out, as well as for Android engineers who want to decompile their own apps and see what they look like. I think it’s quite useful.