Decompile APK Files with APKTOOL

by TechsBucket · Published August 15, 2021 · Updated September 11, 2021

A tool for reverse engineering 3rd party closed binary Android apps. It can decode resources to the nearly original form and rebuild them after making some modifications. It also makes working with an app easier because of the project like file structure and automation of some repetitive tasks like building apk, etc.

It is NOT intended for piracy and other non-legal uses. It could be used for localizing, adding some features or support for custom platforms, analyzing applications, and much more.

Features

Disassembling resources to nearly original form (including resources.arsc, classes.dex, 9.png. and XMLs)
Rebuilding decoded resources back to binary APK/JAR
Organizing and handling APKs that depend on framework resources
Smali Debugging (Removed in 2.1.0 in favor of IdeaSmali)
Helping with repetitive tasks

Requirements

Java 8 (JRE 1.8)
Basic knowledge of Android SDK, AAPT, and smali

So far we’ve been working with tools that are centered around Android developer and not reverse engineering. But now we’re going to download our first security tool. It’s a super popular tool and you can say that is part of the foundation of most Static Analysis Tools out there, this tool is called APKTool

Also Read : Install SDK Manager and Android Emulator On Android Studio

Install APKTool

Now the downside here is that you will be getting the last version available in this repository, not the actual last version. So now we have apktool installed on the system.

# sudo apt-get install apktool

Download Sample of APK from the popular APK website after apktool installation is finished

Download Sample APK

Once the download is complete, let’s go to the downloads folder and run apktool on the apk using the ‘D’ parameter so ‘D’ for decode the sample apk file. In my case, I have renamed the apk file a ” test “