Android Hacking Fundamentals -Part-1

Before learning about the android application hacking, it is necessary to understand the fundamental concepts of android application files, components and how the different components are helpful to function the application. Need to know about the jargon of the Android application core components.

APK

Android applications are distributed as APK files. APK files are basically ZIP files similar to the JAR files used to package Java libraries. An APK file contains app code in the DEX file format, native libraries, resources, assets, etc. It must be digitally signed with a certificate to allow installation on an Android device.

The structure of an APK

Files inside in the APK - securitmania

APK Package Contents

An APK file is a compressed package that contains the following files and directories:

• assets: directory with application assets.
• res: directory with all resources that are not compiled into resources.arsc. These are all resources except the files in res/values. All XML resources are converted to binary XML, and all .png files are optimized (crunched) to save space and improve runtime performance when inflating these files.
• lib: directory with compiled native libraries used by your app. Contains multiple…