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26 Commits
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7b6c6932a9 | README: add a theme-aware header, live badges, and a Simplified Chinese edition | ||
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9b159253c6 |
Adopt rasc (the Rust ASC) as the indexer, with its measured blind spot written down
The Python `droidasc` indexer works and is one `pip install` away, but the same project has a Rust
re-implementation on its `rust` branch, and this pass answers whether it can be used instead of the
Python one. It can, with one documented caveat. Everything below was measured here; nothing is taken
from the upstream README's numbers.
**What was built.** `rasc` publishes no artifact -- no release asset, and `cargo install rasc`
fetches an unrelated maths parser -- so adopting it means building it. rustup (gnu host, rustc 1.98.1)
plus a 64-bit MinGW-w64 gcc 16.1.0 as the linker, `cargo build --release` in **117 s**, producing a
2.13 MB binary from `MG1937/ASC@e809c7b` (rust branch, sha256 `1becdb86…c0264b`). The build traps are
recorded because they cost time here: the host's existing MinGW is **32-bit** and fails with
`sorry, unimplemented: 64-bit mode not compiled in`, E:\vs2022 has no VC tools, and the registered WSL2
distribution cannot start (`HCS_E_SERVICE_NOT_AVAILABLE`) -- so neither the MSVC nor the Linux path
was available.
**What it answers.** Same CLI shape as the Python tool (`classes` / `manifest` / `getclass` /
`findrefs {string,type,method,field}`), and on this repository's archives the answers match:
MASTG UnCrackable-Level3 (1.4 MB) classes 5.6x findrefs string 15.6x findrefs type 16.2x
a real 34.8 MB app (30,768 classes) classes 4.0x -- class sets IDENTICAL, 0 differences either way
`scripts/rasc_build.py` wraps the whole path -- `--check`, `--build`, `--verify <apk>` -- so the
verification travels with the kit instead of living in a note: `--verify` compares the class-definition
set against `droidasc` and fails on any difference. It resolves the repository root by walking up
rather than assuming a layout, prepends a non-default `CARGO_HOME` to PATH, and reports a missing
toolchain as exit 3 with the install step.
**The blind spot, and why the rule is a rule.** The rasc project ships its own JADX-parity harness.
Run here on a fair sample (app-like classes; the harness refuses to judge a class JADX cannot
decompile), 17 of 20 were judged and 16 matched literal-for-literal with 0 reorderings. The one
difference is not cosmetic: `org.bouncycastle.crypto.PasswordConverter` is an enum whose constants
override a method, JADX emits the three anonymous subclasses with their `convert` / `getType` bodies,
and **rasc emits a bare constant list -- the bodies are gone and no warning is emitted**. Clean,
plausible, incomplete output is precisely the failure shape this repository catalogues, so:
use rasc to locate, and to read ordinary classes; confirm an enum that shows no bodies with a
second reader; keep droidasc and JADX as the cross-checks the skill already requires.
The automated verdict said "literals rasc lost: 1", which understates it -- counting literals cannot
see a dropped body. That is recorded in the evidence file rather than smoothed over.
**What changed in the kit.** `references/rasc-and-droidsaw.md` (the measurements, the failing class,
the build traps, provenance); `scripts/rasc_build.py`; `toolchain.md` Tier 1 now lists `rasc` first
with `droidasc` as the fallback and the cross-check; README structure and script tables; the evidence
record `docs/tool-verification/EXTENSION-rasc.md`.
**One inconsistency this exposed and fixed.** `check_repo.py` looked for a reference or script name in
`SKILL.md` + the README only, while this repository's reference inventory lives in
`references/routing.md` -- so a correctly registered file was reported as orphaned, and the script
half of that check was not actually running. The registration surface is now SKILL.md + README +
`references/routing.md`, nested reference directories are read too, and a planted unregistered script
was used to confirm the check still fires.
Gates: check_repo 0 problem, check_refs 0 dangling / 0 warning, check_routing coherent, check_budget
0 failure / 0 warning, check_commands 154 checked / 0 drift, pytest 625 passed / 163 skipped /
25 xfailed.
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b098904228 | README: add a disclaimer for learning-only, authorized use | ||
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5c57553186 | README: acknowledge the LINUX DO community | ||
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2beade67f2 |
Reconstruction pass: make the gates tell the truth, make the package self-contained, keep the one-hop symptom index
An external audit of this repository landed on four structural findings, and this pass is the
response to them. Everything below was re-measured on this tree before being acted on; two of the
audit's claims needed a correction of my own, and both corrections are noted in place.
**The gates were optimistic, and one of them did not read content at all.**
doctor.py the capability table was hard-coded (`repack + sign = bool(java) and python`), so a
machine with a JDK and no zipalign/apksigner was told it could re-sign; the script
inventory was a hand-written list of 28 against 51 files on disk, omitting the nine
most important scripts. It now scans the directory (`registered/checked = 52 / 52`,
unjudgeable entries counted as `unknown`, never skipped) and resolves capability as a
real requires-closure, reporting BLOCKED with the missing piece and an installable
next step. Measured: the old doctor reports `[OK] repack + sign` on a JDK-only PATH
where keytool, jarsigner, zipalign, apksigner and all eight smali jars are absent.
The report is allowed to look bad; that is the point.
check_commands.py (new)
anchor checks prove a section exists, never that a command runs. This parses each
script's argparse table with `ast` and checks every documented invocation against it.
146 commands / 41 interfaces, 0 drift. It caught `sig_probe.py --live --pkg`, which
does not exist -- the reference had been wrong since it was written.
check_routing.py (new)
the symptom index now has one home (`SKILL.md`, because symptom -> file must stay one
hop) and the inventory has another (`references/routing.md`). This gate proves the
mirror agrees, that every reference file is named, and that every script is named.
**so_constpatch.py was corrupting APKs it rebuilt.** The writer copied filename and timestamp onto a
fresh ZipInfo and recompressed the whole archive: 435-entry real package, `extra` lost on 205 entries,
`external_attr` rewritten on all 435, 132 untouched entries recompressed, and `resources.arsc` pushed
to an unaligned offset. Android's own `zipalign -c -v 4` fails the old output and passes the new one;
a 26-case fixture suite pins it, and `extractNativeLibs="false"` is now refused by default with a
pointer at `repack.py`. Fixing it exposed the same defect in `repack.py`, where `^lib/[^/]+\.so$`
cannot match `lib/arm64-v8a/*.so` -- so its alignment handling had never once fired on a real APK.
**The package was not self-contained.** 59 references pointed at the repository root, which `npx
skills add` does not install. They now converge on `references/evidence-summary.md` (capability,
conclusion, strength, evidence that ships) plus `evidence/` with the machine-readable companions: 8
references remain and each is explicitly labelled "repository root, not shipped". A drill in which
the new files were copied to an isolated directory and asked three questions answered all three.
**SKILL.md: 572 lines / 15,733 tokens -> 398 lines / ~10,900 tokens**, without losing the two things
that had to stay. The symptom index remains inline; the reference and script indexes moved to the
on-demand routing file. The freed budget went into making the rules *stronger*, not shorter: the
constraints section is now a table of thirteen non-negotiable constraints each paired with the check
that catches a violation, and the tooling obligations are instructions whose violation is a defect
(hedging language in SKILL.md: 1 line, down from a paragraph of hedged advice). Long references gained
a navigation head so a reader can decide from the top whether to load one.
**New: an executable test layer.** `tests/` (unit, CLI contract, no-device integration) plus
`pytest.ini`, `tests/run_tests.py`, a minimal CI job, and `evals/evals.json` written but never run --
stated as such in the file. 608 passed / 158 skipped / 25 xfailed. The 25 xfails are a work order, not
a pass: thirteen scripts report a missing input by exiting 1 instead of 2, seven let a traceback
escape, four treat `--help` as an error, and `preflight --json` lacks a `status` field. A regression
row for `dex_patch_bytes.py` reproduces a previous artifact byte-for-byte
(`67ae1e58e7a44777e5ac8f9f823ab21e…`) and additionally pins the four bytes that may move.
**Two real defects the new tests found in the tooling itself.** `check_repo.py` decoded subprocess
output with the locale encoding, so on a GBK console a script printing an em dash in its usage line
was reported as crashed; it now decodes UTF-8 explicitly. And a CLI contract test drove a *real
attached device* through `coldstart.py` -- logcat, screenshots, five orphan `adb logcat` processes --
which is fixed twice over: child processes run in a private temporary cwd, and the fifteen
device-bound scripts are never executed beyond `--help`/argument parsing.
**Quoting on the device side is now one implementation.** `devsh.su` escaped only double quotes, so
`;`, `$( )` and backticks in a caller-supplied value still reached the device shell while
`coldstart.Device.shell` quoted correctly. Both use `scripts/device_shell.py` now: POSIX single-quote
escaping, argv arrays by default, and identifier validation that refuses a malformed package, path or
component with exit 2 instead of a traceback. The integration test that used to pin the *defect* (it
asserted `su -c "…"` with `\"` escapes) now asserts the property, across five metacharacter payloads.
Gates: check_repo 0 problems (including the content-reading identity scan over git ls-files),
check_refs 0 dangling / 0 warning, check_routing coherent (53 symptom / 45 reference / 54 script rows),
check_budget 0 failure / 0 warning with the always-loaded body now measured in tokens rather than in
"narrative lines with the index excluded", check_commands 146 checked / 0 drift, pytest 608 passed.
Not done, and stated rather than implied: CI has never run on a runner; the evals have never been
executed; the 25 xfails are open; no device-side install/launch was performed in this pass.
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6cffc3d2ac |
Absorption pass: take the mechanics from four external skill repositories, keep our discipline
Four projects were cloned for comparison (reverse-skill, awesome-game-security,
android-reverse-engineering-claude-skill, MobileRE-Skill) and read for what they do that this
repository does not. None is vendored and none becomes a runtime dependency: what crosses over is a
phase order, a checklist or a command pattern, with the source URL and the retrieval date recorded in
the file that absorbed it.
The rule applied to every candidate: does this make a judgement easier or a verification harder? The
repository is a decision-and-verification layer, and the four things kept are all of that kind.
new scripts/scan_leaks.py target identity scanned before publishing, with an explicit
do-not-anonymize list and four RESULT=/exit states
new references/precedents/ the positive half of the record: route including dead ends, a
grade per assertion, measured pits, and a write-back checklist
new scripts/svc_scan.py does a libc-level hook structurally see this call at all
new scripts/anti_detect_probe.js observer-only: name the check, and report the environment it reads
new references/desensitization-and-leak-scans.md
new references/dart-aot.md sections the 32-bit snapshot's real string-record format
check_repo.py now delegates the identity scan to scripts/scan_leaks.py and runs it over
git ls-files, so the gate reads content instead of layout for the first time. An explicit file list
cannot be narrowed by the default work-area exemptions -- that defect was caught by the gate itself.
Two claims that this repository had already written down turned out to be wrong, and both are
recorded as refuted rather than quietly rewritten:
dart-aot.md the armv7 string table was documented as [len*2 u32le][UTF-16LE]. It is not. The same
extractor keeps 4,980 chained entries on arm64 and zero on armv7, and the byte layer
shows the 32-bit record is [header u32][byte-count u32le][UTF-8 payload]: two adjacent
literals carry 0x46 (70) and 0x48 (72), exactly their byte lengths. The zero was a
format mismatch, not an empty table. The engine-version banner on the same target is
66 bytes of "0.0.1" with a blank build id, so the documented regex returns a
version-shaped lie.
leak scan the pass that added the scanner found 26 strong hits inside its own evidence file on
the day it was written -- the fixture's literal match values, quoted to prove the
rules fire. The corpus may contain values; the published surface may not.
Measured, not asserted. The check that fires was named on a public MASTG target: three arms with one
variable, the control alive at the end and the probe arm dead in about 300 ms, with strstr("frida") at
t=303 ms and no tombstone. Reproducibility is bounded honestly -- one full sequence in three arms, on
a target whose whole window is sub-second. svc_scan.py's two independent decoders agree on an
identical 214-site set, and ptrace-free dumping gained a negative boundary: a target whose dex is
deflated inside its APK has no whole-image dex in memory to export, for reasons that say nothing about
protection.
Also in this pass: the detector-locating pipeline (detection-and-anti-analysis.md Step 3) with its
branch conditions; the layered Java-to-svc descent and the dump's honesty boundary in
advanced-unpacking.md; a sourced capability-gap list in toolchain.md where every row is graded
URL-verified or measured; the RESULT=-token convention; and SKILL.md opening with an immediate-action
block, because the symptom index and the gates were sitting in the part of a long file nobody reads.
Gates: check_repo.py 0 problem, check_refs.py 0 dangling / 0 warning, check_budget.py 0 failure /
0 warning / 1 pre-existing note. The scan reports RESULT=leaks_found_strong_only, exit 0: four
endpoint/weak hits, all of them addresses from the RFC 5737 documentation range in usage examples.
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fd2a1150be |
Structure: sink the evidence record out of SKILL.md, and gate the budget
SKILL.md was 658 lines against the Anthropic Agent Skills guidance of keeping the body under 500, and the growth sat where it costs most: the Coverage section had accumulated the evidence for every claim plus a per-pass verification history (153 lines / 11.8 KB), and Hand-off had grown two knowledge tables. Both now load on demand, with SKILL.md keeping the decision-level statement and a pointer. Coverage 153 -> 68 lines new references/coverage-and-limits.md Hand-off 51 -> 19 lines new references/handoff-boundaries.md SKILL.md 658 -> 543 lines (404 narrative + 139 index) index rows 24.0 KB -> ~19 KB descriptions now say when to load, not what is inside check_budget.py is the substance of this pass. check_repo.py proves consistency, and consistency has a natural counter-pressure: a broken path fails loudly and someone fixes it. Bloat has none -- every pass adds a reference, an index row and a coverage claim, and nothing in the repository notices. The new gate measures narrative lines separately from index lines, because 139 of SKILL.md's lines are the discoverability tax for 86 bundled files and counting them against a prose budget would push the skill to drop files it needs. Conclusions restated beyond the benchmark matrix, the evidence record and the coverage statement are reported as notes. No measured content changed in this pass: every claim, strength label and negative result is where it was, and the two new references carry the moved text verbatim plus the corrections the benchmark pass produced. |
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6221a072ca |
Benchmark pass: measure the documented routes, close five tool gaps, correct four claims
Public targets under the existing routes, recorded per row in tests/benchmark.md with each row's own strength label: the MASTG crackmes (equal-length patch -> repack -> re-sign with a zero-change control, and the anti-debug race with its time-to-death baseline), DexPatcher's ezAndroid sample, two real split APK sets, and a self-built extraction-skeleton set. Hardening-shape discrimination now separates Java2C from an extraction shell, a VMP and JNI sinking. New: java2c_probe.py and java2c-and-jni-sinking.md; split-apk.md with repack.py growing set inventory, unified re-signing and merge; protobuf_decode_raw.py cross-checked against the official runtime; vmp_diff_harness.py and its cost table; kernelsu_syscall_mask.py with three kernel-side templates; stalker_trace.js gains Stalker.exclude() and a zero-event warning. Corrections, each because a measurement contradicted a recorded conclusion: the trivial-body ratio is bimodal rather than a threshold and the old threshold claim was deleted; a Dex-VMP verdict was withdrawn after dexdump contradicted a hand-written opcode table; the assumption that Stalker.exclude() fixes zero-event delivery is disproved (it keeps the process alive, nothing more); and a repack.py signing-path claim expired mid-pass when a second writer added one. Emulated and kernel-side routes are labelled unverified where no toolchain or device could run them; each evidence file states what was not run. |
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ce2e4f98e1 |
Extension pass: module route, extraction shells, emulation/RPC, DBI, kernel layer, protocols
Closes the six coverage gaps named in an external review of this skill, and moves the deliverable-form decision out of the single assumption it rested on. New references (7): - lsposed-and-modules.md deliver a hook module when a repack is refused - advanced-unpacking.md extraction shells, FART-style recovery, the root-side dump - emulation-and-rpc.md call the routine instead of reading it - native-dbi-and-deobfuscation.md OLLVM, Stalker traces, two measured boundaries - protocol-reverse.md protobuf/gRPC/QUIC and native-side pinning - kernel-and-environment-hardening.md when userspace hooking cannot reach the check - on-device-tooling.md MT Manager, its APK MCP, working from the phone New scripts (8): dex_dump_validate.py (+ --trim for page-aligned captures), dex_mem_scan.py, lsposed_scaffold.py, frida_rpc_serve.py + rpc_template.js, stalker_trace.js + stalker_report.py, mt_mcp_probe.py SKILL.md: - G1 carries a four-form deliverable table (rebuilt APK / module / RPC service / report) with the evidence that says when to leave the repack column, plus a matching hand-off section on how "verified" moves with the form - Coverage gains a documented-routes tier carrying its own strength note; Not-covered loses the now-inaccurate "general unpacker" line and gains the limits that do apply - 13 new symptom rows, 7 reference rows, 8 script rows, a fifth tooling obligation - the pid-drift symptom is stated with its competing causes, not a single attribution toolchain.md gains measured ASC/ddc cards; README gains the structure, capability and scope entries for everything above; .gitignore stops tracking the local workspace. Evidence: docs/tool-verification/EXTENSION-*.md (7 files), same three labels as the rest of the record. Measured: the gradle-free module build chain (5.27 s end to end), a successful injection confirmed through the LSPosed file channel (9 rounds) after three logcat queries came back empty on a ROM with a broken logd, 17 dex images recovered by root-side /proc/<pid>/mem dumping, the trivial-body metric separating a shell skeleton from real bodies, ASC/ddc on a hardened APK, and Stalker's zero-event and crash boundaries. The pid-drift attribution was corrected twice against better measurements. |
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206a2f5465 |
Toolchain guidance, observation ordering, and target-neutral records
Capability-first tooling guidance, plus removal of target identity from the repo. Toolchain (references/toolchain.md): - New ASC (droidasc) section + README Requirements row. An agent should reach for an indexer before any full decompile. Covers install, query subcommands, the division of labour with ddc (ASC locates, ddc reads), and its measured limits -- including the unverified-negative trap when a non-ASCII needle goes through a shell, and the mangled-class case where ASC is the only route. - ddc: two measured limits -- a renamed class is unreachable via -c, and a decompiled body can be semantically wrong rather than merely ugly. - New "Closing a capability gap": installing the missing tool IS the task, with measured install costs set against the cost of the workaround. - New "Using the kit's scripts instead of writing your own", with two-tools-disagreeing as the bug detector it is. - Ghidra section for the aarch64 case: headless invocation, the flattening caveat, and the "a decompiler cannot go where the data is not" boundary. - HaE placed in Tier 3 as traffic triage, naming the three situations where it is the wrong next step. Observation ordering: - SKILL.md: new Tooling section with four obligations; G2 now requires a written capability inventory; symptom index gains four rows (silent feature loss with no request at all, telling your patch apart from the target's own behaviour, spawn keeps the Activity stack down, the device server being killed by the ROM). - dynamic-frida.md: the patch-then-detach ordering, and device-server survival notes. - New scripts/spawn_patch_detach.py and scripts/hook_patch_only.js. Neutrality: - docs/verification-jiongnew/ -> docs/tool-verification/. Target-specific transcripts dropped; all target identity removed. The record keeps the measurements and loses the specimen. - No target identity remains anywhere in the tree. check_repo.py: 0 problems. check_refs.py: 182 reachable, 0 dangling, 0 warnings. |
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e193f425ba |
Measure the toolkit on a real Flutter target and correct what it claimed
Ran the scripts against a real Flutter AOT / multi-dex / 36-.so APK (Dart 3.6.0, com.tingfeng.tool) and recorded what each one actually did. Two of them were wrong in the direction that reads as a target finding, one Coverage claim overstated what ships, and four documentation statements were false. Fixed: dart_pprefs.py decoded only the general-purpose register file, so `ldr dN,[x27,#imm]` (0xFD400000) was never matched and every double constant read from the object pool was dropped -- 302 pool offsets and 1802 sites on this sample, one of them with 150 references that would have been reported as zero. The documented advice is to count references before editing a shared constant, so a one-sided quiet gap here produces exactly the wrong decision. Now covers both register files; a purpose-written arbiter agrees with it to 0/0 across .text, against 0/302 before. Documented but deliberately not fixed, because a fix would not have been run: elf_plt.py misses the last PLT stub slot (`off < fsz - 16`), which on libloader.so turned a real, called import (dl_iterate_phdr) into "not a resolved stub". find_refs.py advertises dex-directory input but iter_files() accepts only .smali, so it answers "no references" with exit 0 for input it never read. so_constpatch.py's rebuild drops the zip `extra` field and destroys 4 KB alignment. Each has its root cause and fix sketch recorded. Documentation corrections in dart-aot.md: blutter's asm/ does contain full instruction listings with pool annotations -- the file said to ignore it, and it is the richest artifact in the chain. The first build costs ~78 s, not "tens of minutes"; MSVC 19.34 suffices, not VS 2022. The file-PP offset mapping is not recoverable from the binary (4241 shared strings, 4237 distinct deltas), so a snapshot-decoding front end is a dependency, now stated. Documented aotopsy as the no-toolchain route, and the trap that its version label is a structural profile name (it says 3.6.2 for a 3.6.0 snapshot). Coverage now separates what was measured from what is inferred, names blutter/aotopsy as a prerequisite instead of implying the pool decodes itself, lists the scripts this pass did not run, and says plainly that the packer / VMP / integrity-check scenarios were not exercised at all. Added hand-off points for JNI, dex-observed hardening, and the existing native boundary documents, plus docs/verification-jiongnew/ -- the evidence record, including the four gate outputs verbatim. No second skill: the gap is one front-end dependency, not a subject area, and relocating Flutter docs would not have supplied it. |
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46812ec9a4 |
Reword the check_refs.py description so it is not read as a reference
The maintenance table illustrated the check with a literal example of the shape it looks for, and the check then reported that example as a dangling reference to a file that does not exist. |
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7176b5e1c9 |
Restructure to the skills/<name>/ layout the skills CLI resolves
The skill lived at the repository root, which the CLI reads as a single-skill repository and which makes a second skill impossible to add. SKILL.md, references/ and scripts/ move under skills/apk-reverse/ with git mv, so history follows and no in-skill reference needs changing (they are relative to SKILL.md). check_repo.py now discovers every skills/*/SKILL.md, validates frontmatter by parsing it instead of pattern-matching it, and requires the README to name skills through explicit skills/<name>/... paths. check_refs.py is new: it audits file.md section cross-references against the real headings in the target file. It found six dangling ones, all fixed here. SKILL.md: the description is now quoted. Unquoted, it contained a colon-space, which is invalid YAML, so the CLI skipped the skill and reported No skills found. Adds a Coverage section stating what is out of scope and what to do when nothing matches. toolchain.md: IDA is not GUI-only (idalib-mcp is a headless MCP server), plus a section on MCP servers as external dependencies and the deobfuscate-before-LLM boundary. README.md: install via npx skills add, the new layout, coverage and maintenance tools. Verified: check_repo.py and check_refs.py both clean, build_scripts.py audit 0 findings, npx skills add . --list reports apk-reverse, and an install into a scratch directory lands SKILL.md plus 28 references and 38 scripts. |
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a552157f1b |
Close the byte-patching gap, add the server-config path, fix two script crashes
Worked end-to-end on a real unobfuscated commercial app (single-dex, no packer,
server-driven launch screen) and folded back everything that cost time. Net +17
files, no new dependencies, no sample-specific identifiers.
New references
byte-level-patching.md
The technique that was missing entirely. Equal-length in-place edits beat
method rebuilding (measured on a real sample: method rewrite grew debug_info
924 B -> 22.8 KB and the dex 4.32 MB -> 7.73 MB), but four failure modes are
silent: same-length is not enough, branch polarity, verifier legality, and
stale dex header fields. Covers locating an instruction's exact offset (why
listings and byte-pattern guesses both fail), the instruction width table and
the two traps that desynchronise a decode, neutralise-a-branch vs redirect-it,
and the header's signature-then-checksum order.
server-config-and-updates.md
The most common shape of "ad" in a modern app, and the one usually
mis-diagnosed: the server supplies UI the client renders. The two-layer fetch
(local fallback then remote override) that proves it, finding the config DTOs
through the field names data classes keep, why you patch the decision and not
the data, deciding the scope of "remove", and remote re-enable / cached config
durability.
New scripts
dexutil.py dependency-free dex reader: structural walk, exact
instruction decode, dex header recompute/verify in the
correct order, branch-target and operand helpers
dex_find_insn.py locate an instruction by decoded semantics, print its exact
byte offset with context and BOTH sides of any branch
dex_patch_bytes.py equal-length byte patches from a JSON spec: semantic match,
polarity pin via expect_next, equal-length enforcement,
verifier check, header recompute, re-decode to prove it landed
dex_check_verifier.py does any conditional branch target a move-result (bypassing
its producer)? Compares builds and separates pre-existing
findings from regressions the patch introduced
coldstart.py cold-launch capture: timed screenshot burst + logcat signals
+ installed-build facts + launch timing, and a warning when
the foreground activity is not the app
check_repo.py maintenance check: every script parses and answers --help,
every referenced path resolves, every file is documented
Fixes found while running the above
repack.py wrote archives with a plain zipfile writer, which cannot satisfy
the Android R+ install gate: resources.arsc must be STORED *and*
4-byte aligned, and a zip extra record cannot express a 1-3 byte
pad (a stored filler entry is inserted instead). Also fixes the
central-directory pointer and adds an alignment gate to the output.
usb_net_proxy.py, dex_strpatch.py
crashed on --help with a traceback instead of printing usage.
Updated
toolchain.md ddc added (single-binary dex->Java with query subcommands,
with measured timings and its real limits); "not on PATH is
not not-installed" with the search commands; which signer
to use and why jarsigner breaks alignment
repack-and-sign.md alignment requirement and its arithmetic; dex header
recompute; jarsigner hazard; vendor install interception
([N] with no symbolic constant -> root pm install); the
installer can keep owning the screen after an install
recon.md resolve package identity from a tool, not from hand-read
AXML strings (a wrong package sends all later device queries
nowhere); snapshot the config surface during recon
long-task-discipline.md captures you never looked at are not evidence (incl. the
consistent-but-wrong-window variant); long-context decay and
the record shape that survives it
dynamic-frida.md when live attach cannot work at all: static instrumentation,
static read, and self-recorded evidence, with the control
build caveat each one carries
ad-removal.md server-driven config is usually the EASIEST case, not the
hardest; a three-way zero result is a positive finding;
scope note on local brand splash vs promotional content
pitfalls.md P37 stale dex header checksum, P38 [-124] alignment,
P39 bare-numeric install failure, P40 wrong-window evidence,
P41 inverted branch polarity, P42 decode desynchronisation
SKILL.md, README.md symptom index, reference/script indexes and requirements
updated for all of the above
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d1349b3cfa |
Restructure SKILL.md as a gated procedure, not advice
Why
The reference material was good and mostly went unread in practice. The failure mode was
not ignorance - it was reading the file, agreeing with it, and then reasoning from first
principles anyway, because everything in it was phrased as guidance. Guidance can be
acknowledged and set aside; a gate cannot be cleared without doing the thing.
SKILL.md is now a procedure
New top matter, in the order a reader meets it:
- "How to use this file" states plainly that this is a procedure with gates, that this
file wins over intuition until evidence overrides it, and why (every rule is residue
of a failure that cost hours).
- Four override rules R1-R4, each with a one-line claim, the concrete trap, and a
pointer. R1 deliverable-as-a-testable-sentence, R2 one variable plus a control build,
R3 never ship or claim an unverified artifact, R4 identify the owning layer and
re-classify when reality disagrees.
- The symptom index is retitled "a matching row is a stop signal" and now carries an
explicit instruction: load the file before your next command, not after your next
three attempts.
- Four gates G1-G4, each an action with a pass criterion and a fail description:
deliverable form, environment truth (doctor.py + preflight), code location (including
the virtualization check even when recon says "no packer"), and baseline/control with
recorded time-to-death.
- The workflow gains a skip-condition line per step ("it seems unnecessary" is not a
condition) and a two-strike rule: two failures of the same shape mean the model is
wrong, not the parameters, so re-classify instead of running a third variant.
- New "What done means": six items, all required, with an explicit rule that a clean log
is not evidence and that anything short of six is a checkpoint to be labelled as one.
- New "Stop conditions": the six moments where pushing forward is the wrong move -
repeated same-shape failure, a no-effect patch about to be retried, an unexplained
failure, an unproven "blocked" verdict, a success claimed from absence of errors, and
a measurement that disagrees with a settled conclusion.
README
Documents the gated design and why it exists, and tells an agent reading it what to act
on rather than read: the four rules, the symptom index as a stop signal, the gates, the
two-strike rule, and the definition of done. Points at scripts/doctor.py as the cheapest
first command.
Not changed
Three section references (`ad-removal.md` server-driven, `recon.md` code-location,
`dex-patching.md` finding-the-call-site) do not match a `##` heading textually. Each
target does exist - two are bolded inline subheadings and one is "## Finding the call
site" - so they resolve for a reader. Left alone deliberately: rewriting them would add
churn without changing behaviour.
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0fc2a30408 |
Add code-virtualization/custom-linker reference, doctor and so_constpatch tools
New reference: references/code-virtualization-and-custom-linkers.md
Covers the layer between "packed" and "clean" - manifests whose Application is the
app's own and whose dex is readable, yet a re-signed build dies before user code runs.
Contents: three cheap identification tells (whole classes as native declarations, the
registerNativesForClass/special_clinit pair, SONAME-vs-filename mismatch); the
keep-the-library / delete-the-library deadlock and why both routes fail; the
checker-vs-implementation question that resolves it; the string-redirect technique
(equal-length rewrite of an isolated constant so a loadLibrary call reaches an
already-mapped library, so no offsets move and no death path needs neutralizing);
expected private-loader log shapes; a single-variable experiment to determine whether
the native check reads in-APK certificate material or the PMS-reported signature; and
why a Java-layer signature killer logging success proves nothing.
New tool: scripts/doctor.py
Cheapest first command. Capability report and per-script runnability, with
APKREV_TOOLS support so tools installed off-PATH or as runnable jars are found rather
than reported missing. Surfaces the environment facts that silently poison
experiments: clock skew, leftover adb forward entries, a leftover device proxy, and a
frida process already running on the device (which makes the target look like it
detects instrumentation when nothing has been attached yet).
New tool: scripts/so_constpatch.py
Implements the string-redirect technique. Enforces equal length, refuses to patch a
substring of a longer identifier, reports whether each hit sits in an ELF constant
pool, and patches inside an APK or a bare .so. Field-tested on a real protected
library: find, equal-length replace, unequal-length refusal, multi-hit guard, --force
and absent-name paths all verified.
Updated:
SKILL.md fix question count (ten -> thirteen); index the new reference and
both new scripts; make doctor.py the first step of the workflow;
add the "no packer but still dying" pointer during recon
packers.md cross-reference the new layer so "no packer" is not read as
"editable"
ad-removal.md make log evidence a count rather than an impression (n -> 0 is a
measurement; a tag that goes quiet without reaching zero is a
weaker result)
repack-and-sign.md warn that a full apktool rebuild rewrites obfuscated resource
paths (hundreds of rename pairs) - a tool artifact that must not be
read as breakage - and prefer a dex-only swap when that is the only
edit
pitfalls.md generalize the ServiceLoader example so it is not tied to one
sample's third-party library
README.md document the new files and scripts; document APKREV_TOOLS and the
cross-platform intent
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02c832f847 |
add detection-and-anti-analysis reference
A decision file for when the app fights back or the tool cannot run here: separating detection from a broken environment, choosing between workaround / change-route / accept by cost instead of escalating, recognising an environment where dynamic analysis genuinely cannot work (and switching to static rather than proving it impossible), and keeping 'blocks my analysis' separate from 'blocks the deliverable'. |
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173ad0d463 |
add update-suppression and account-gate references; fix two script defects
- references/updates-and-forced-upgrade.md: keeping a patched build alive (locating the version check, the two-layer patch, what not to touch, self-update and hot-update channels, verifying no version request is issued) - references/account-gates.md: client-side sign-in/binding gates vs account-scoped resources, why forging a session is worse than being signed out, session loss after reinstall - SKILL.md / README.md: wire both into the decision list, workflow and indexes - scripts/dex_classdiff.py: had no argparse, so --help crashed with IndexError; added proper CLI, non-zero exit on structural difference, removed a dead duplicate read - scripts/dex_strings.py: --find compiled the regex as bytes but matched decoded text, raising TypeError on the main path; split into text and byte patterns, added --max-print output cap |
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ae739bb0c1 |
Add native tamper/suicide guidance, toolchain map, and three scripts
references/native-tamper-and-suicide.md - how a hardened library terminates its own process: the mechanisms and their signatures, how to tell which one actually fires, arranged faults that call nothing (defeating every PLT-level fix), resolving a stub to its symbol, forged section headers, function boundaries from PT_GNU_EH_FRAME, scanner traps, and neutralising by returning rather than spinning. references/toolchain.md - what to install, non-interactive invocation, GUI-only tools (ask for a human instead of silently substituting a weaker method), version-alignment traps, and working offline. scripts/elf_plt.py - PLT stub to imported symbol on x86_64 and aarch64 from the relocation table; caller listing; library byte-diff naming each changed stub's symbol. scripts/apk_diff.py - entry-level diff by content hash, so same-size replacements are caught. scripts/native_crash.py - locate a native death from a log or tombstone and flag an arranged fault. pitfalls P31-P36; SKILL.md gains a decision question, a hard constraint on neutralising terminate paths, and cross-references from packers/native-and-so. |
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e50c826d95 |
Add patch-audit reference; extend pitfalls to P30; unify script docs in English
- references/patch-audit.md (new): two independent questions for any self-made patch — did it land, and is it legal. Length-vs-bytes comparison and the ~800-false-positive signal that makes byte diffing useless; the equal-length-replacement blind spot that hides patches from length-only audits (and why tier-2 checking must be driven by the patch set's own declared targets, not by tier-1 output); verifier-level legality (move-result must immediately follow its producer) checked as a set-difference so it runs before the device; text-matching patch traps (whitespace, line endings, instruction names, anchor uniqueness, re-emitted old fragments, one block per doc); and auditing the patch set rather than a patch. - pitfalls P28-P30: stale events-buffer records that read as this build's crash; a patch that lands and changes nothing because the edited data is not the data the UI consumes; two observations that cannot distinguish the hypotheses reported as a result. - verification.md: point the known code-item blind spot at the new reference. - Unify the four remaining script docstrings (and their inline comments) into English, and generalise a sample-specific class name out of one of them. |
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21686e84f1 |
Add signature-derived-key coverage, PID attach, MMKV; fix stale question count
New: references/signature-derived-keys.md (apps that use their own signing certificate as crypto key material: detection greps, why offline extraction is unreliable -- the runtime value is a certificate DER from inside the PKCS#7 chain, not the .RSA container -- plus the hardcode-then-verify procedure); scripts/sig_probe.py (offline candidates via --apk, authoritative read via --live, both exercised); pitfalls.md P27 (rebuilt APK installs and renders but every signed request returns empty/-1 signing params). Updated: dynamic-frida.md (attach by PID when enumerate_processes omits the target; verify runtime/Java-bridge availability before blaming the script); runtime-data.md (MMKV format, parse/write snippet, crc32 and in-memory-overwrite traps); server-api.md (route the signature-derived-key case to the new reference); SKILL.md and README.md (new classification question, corrected question count, index entries). |
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cf636c4263 |
Add Dart AOT depth (reference + 3 scripts); fix encoding rule and add P26
New reference: - dart-aot.md: pinning the Dart version, building a matching decompiler, the object-pool model and reference indexes, register/boolean conventions, the three assembly signatures that identify most business logic, the locating workflow, patch strategy, and the traps specific to this layer (including ambiguous identifiers that resolve to protocol fields). New scripts (parameterized, no machine-specific paths): - dart_pprefs.py: object-pool offset -> code-site index, decoded arithmetically. Avoids the full-capstone pass that costs minutes and 1-2 GB and reads as a hang. - dart_pool_strings.py: framed literal recovery with file offsets. Defaults to one-byte because automatic two-byte (UTF-16) detection is unreliable; --find searches both encodings and is the reliable way to locate a known literal. - dart_disasm.py: annotated windowed disassembly (pool + boolean annotations) and a B/BL caller index that needs no disassembler. Fixes and integration: - framework-runtimes.md: point the Dart depth at dart-aot.md, and make the string-encoding rule precise (ASCII is one-byte/UTF-8; CJK is UTF-16LE) instead of leaving it as 'try both'. - pitfalls.md: P26 -- self-built tooling that fails in a way that reads as a target finding (silent arithmetic, helper shadowing a stdlib module, measuring against an incomplete reference, and a knob that does not move the metric). - SKILL.md / README.md: index the new reference and scripts. Validated by running all three scripts against a real Dart AOT sample: the pool-ref index agrees with an independently built index to 99.2%, and the literal extractor's one-byte output was verified string-by-string against a decompiler's pool listing. |
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0ea42265b7 |
Add deliverable-form discipline, execution identity, and four reusable scripts
Generalized from a long hardened-target engagement. Additions target the failure
modes that cost the most time and are not yet covered; nothing here is sample-specific.
New discipline
- SKILL.md: a third override rule -- deliver in the environment the request requires.
A root-only or live-instrumentation result can look like success while failing the
actual requirement (unrooted, installable, self-contained). Also adds two classify
questions: what form the deliverable must take, and which architecture/library is
actually executing.
- long-task-discipline.md: "the most expensive drift" -- a constraint table (privilege,
modification form, ABI, network, persistence, distribution), the checkpoint question,
and how to report a privileged workaround as a fallback rather than a deliverable.
Plus "bound every wait": timeouts on every command, budgets calibrated from
measurement so slow and hung are distinguishable, and sampling an observable you can
inspect instead of sleeping blind.
- environment.md: look at the screen instead of driving blind; which of the two screen
evidence kinds is trustworthy (an empty accessibility tree is common for
runtime-rendered UI, where the image is primary rather than a fallback); emulator
console control and adb recovery; preflight before every experiment block.
- native-and-so.md: what the device claims vs what the package manager chose vs what is
actually mapped; translation layers and their consequences for hooks and native
checks; fat-APK ABI selection.
- runtime-data.md: when the app rewrites your edit (server refresh vs local
regeneration), why chmod/chown cannot work because the app deletes and recreates the
file, and the immutable-attribute fix; decoding a value that only looks encrypted.
- framework-runtimes.md: string encoding traps (a UTF-8 scan of a UTF-16 snapshot
returns nothing and reads as "the strings were stripped"), and non-ASCII obfuscated
identifiers -- resolve by shape, not by name.
- pitfalls.md: P23 the fix lives in a file the app rewrites; P24 the artifact changed
but the wrong one is executing; P25 "search found nothing" treated as "not there".
New scripts (parameterized, path-agnostic, all with explicit timeouts)
- preflight.py environment check: device, root, ABI/translation, clock skew, leftover
proxy/forwards, dead device server, chosen ABI, free space
- lib_map.py what is actually mapped into a live process: path, base, architecture
from the ELF header, and whether it came from the APK or was
materialized at runtime
- blob_decode.py search (don't guess) the framing of a stored value, then re-encode the
edited payload with the same parameters
- snap.py bounded burst screenshots + control-tree capture, with a stall detector
and an explicit verdict on whether the tree is usable
All four were exercised against a live device while writing: preflight correctly
flags multi-device ambiguity and detected the ARM translation layer; lib_map read real
ELF headers and identified the translation shim; blob_decode round-tripped a
rotation+deflate+base64 blob at realistic size in ~0.2s; snap detected a stalled screen
across three hashes.
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55432780fc |
Expand into packer/native/framework/long-task coverage; harden verification discipline
New references (loaded on demand, one topic each): - packers.md: reading the shell's rejection signal, distinguishing self-inflicted failures from genuine refusals, mapping the validation boundary via single-variable tests, component-type rules (providers vs activities), picking a native host - framework-runtimes.md: identifying Flutter/RN/Unity/Cordova, the wrong-layer trap, how to tell which layer draws a given UI before committing to a patch direction - native-and-so.md: host-library selection criteria, DT_NEEDED does-not-call-JNI_OnLoad, relocation vs page-permission constraints and relocation-free bootstrapping, replacing Java methods from native code with trampolines and fail-safe guards - long-task-discipline.md: live record structure, conclusion grading, drift checkpoints, handover contents, and the opposite failure of over-documenting Pitfalls: +P18 install reported success but the build was never installed, +P19 internal signal substituted for the user-visible outcome, +P20 not-captured treated as not-present, +P21 two changes then attributing the result, +P22 waiting on something that needs a human to advance. SKILL.md: index the new references; add a runtime check for layer ownership to Q3; add long-task rule; strengthen the verify step; add three hard constraints (user-visible definition of done, no route discarded on compound evidence, prove the device changed before measuring). No app names, package names, or sample-specific identifiers anywhere. |
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1a5cb6245f |
Broaden skill with unpacking, TLS triage, third-party build auditing, runtime probe
references: recon gains packer identification + unpacking workflow (payload/plaintext size mapping, dump validation, hash de-duplication, business-dex heuristic); repack-and-sign gains the de-shelled repack pipeline, why apktool over binary AXML, and the apksigner scheme-selection caveat; new tls-and-cert documents feature-scoped network failures, dual trust chains and the fix template; new third-party-builds covers auditing a cracked/modded APK before trusting it; dynamic-frida gains version pinning, remote-device path, the four-layer probe and hook-never-fires triage; environment gains UI automation pitfalls; ad-removal gains the single convergence point, dynamic-plugin SDKs and the global timestamp gate; pitfalls gains P13-P17; verification gains rung 7 and the three-signal ad check. scripts: new frida_probe.js (four-layer runtime probe), run_probe.py and tls_check.py; repack.py fixes two crash-on-default bugs and a misleading META-INF note; datastore_inject.py, PatchMethodExample.java and build_scripts.py lose hardcoded values - the example class name did not match its file and could not compile. |
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c66658b6b3 |
feat: apk-reverse Agent Skill
Progressive-disclosure skill for Android APK reverse engineering: recon, ad removal, membership limits, dex surgical patching, repack/sign, runtime data, Frida, environment setup, and a hard-won failure catalogue. |