APKnife: The Cyber Blade of APK Domination 🔪🧸

APKnife – The Double-Edged Blade of APK Analysis 🔪

Fear the Blade, Trust the Power!

APKnife is an advanced tool for APK analysis, modification, and security auditing. Whether you're a security researcher, penetration tester, or Android developer, APKnife provides powerful features for reverse engineering, decompiling, modifying, and analyzing APK files.

---

🚀 Features & Capabilities

• ✅ Extract & decompile APKs into readable formats
• ✅ Modify & repackage APKs effortlessly
• ✅ Analyze APKs for security vulnerabilities
• ✅ Edit AndroidManifest.xml & Smali code
• ✅ Extract Java source code from an APK
• ✅ Detect Remote Access Trojans (RATs) & malware
• ✅ Decode binary XML files & scan for API calls
• ✅ Change APK metadata (icon, name, package name)
• ✅ Identify security risks like excessive permissions
• ✅ Sign APKs for smooth installation

---

🔧 Installation

📌 Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed on your system:

• Python 3.12
• Java (JDK 8 or later)
• apktool
• zipalign
• keytool

🛠 Setting Up a Python Virtual Environment

Before installing APKnife, it's recommended to set up a Python virtual environment to avoid package conflicts.

1️⃣ Create a Python Virtual Environment:

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Linux/macOS
venv\Scripts\activate  # On Windows

2️⃣ Install Required Packages

Once the virtual environment is activated, install APKnife:

pip install apknife

---

📥 Installing Rust (Required for APKnife)

APKnife requires Rust for building. Follow the installation steps based on your OS:

🐧 On Linux:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Then follow the on-screen instructions.

🍏 On macOS (Using Homebrew):

brew install rust

🖥️ On Windows:

1. Visit rustup.rs and install Rust.
2. Verify installation:

rustc --version

---

⚠️ Troubleshooting Common Issues

❌ Issue Installing Rust on Termux

Ensure Termux is up to date:

pkg update && pkg upgrade

Install required build tools:

pkg install clang make python rust

❌ Issues Installing APKnife

• Rust not installed properly? Ensure it's correctly installed via rustup or your package manager.
• Python conflicts? If there are issues with virtual environments, reset it:

rm -rf venv
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

✅ Verifying Installed Versions

python --version
rustc --version

---

🌍 Setting Up Rust Environment Variables

🐧 On Linux/macOS

nano ~/.bashrc # For bash
nano ~/.zshrc   # For zsh

Add this line at the end:

export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"

Apply changes:

source ~/.bashrc  # For bash
source ~/.zshrc   # For zsh

🖥️ On Windows

1. Open "Environment Variables" from the Start menu.
2. Edit Path under System Variables and add:

C:\Users\<YourUsername>\.cargo\bin

3. Click OK and restart your terminal.

Verify the setup:

cargo --version
rustc --version

---

📥 Installing APKnife

pip install apknife

---

📜 Usage

🖥️ Interactive Mode

To enter interactive mode, run:

python3 apknife.py interactive

This will launch a command-line interface for executing APKnife commands.

---

🛠️ Available Commands

🟢 Extract APK Contents

python3 apknife.py extract -i target.apk -o extracted/

🟢 Modify & Rebuild APK

python3 apknife.py build -i extracted/ -o modified.apk

🟢 Sign APK

apknife sign -i modified.apk

🟢 Analyze APK for Vulnerabilities

apknife scan_vulnerabilities -i target.apk

🟢 Detect Remote Access Trojans (RATs)

apknife catch_rat -i malicious.apk

🟢 Extract Java Source Code

apknife extract-java -i target.apk -o src_folder

🟢 Change APK Name

apknife modify-apk --name -i app.apk

🟢 Change APK Icon

apknife modify-apk --icon new_icon.png -i app.apk

🟢 Modify Package Name

apknife modify-apk --package com.example.example -i app.apk

🟢 Modify Multiple APK Attributes

apknife modify-apk --name new_name --package new.package.name --icon anysize.any -o modified_apk.apk

🟢 Scan APK Permissions

apknife scan_permissions -i target.apk

---

👇 Help Menu

🟢 Extract APK Contents

Extract the contents of an APK file.

python3 apknife.py extract -i target.apk -o extracted/

• -i: Path to the input APK file.
• -o: Directory to save the extracted files.

---

🟢 Build APK

Rebuild an APK from extracted files.

python3 apknife.py build -i extracted/ -o modified.apk

• -i: Directory containing the extracted files.
• -o: Path to save the rebuilt APK.

---

🟢 Sign APK

Sign an APK file.

apknife sign -i modified.apk

• -i: Path to the APK file to sign.

---

🟢 Analyze APK

Analyze an APK for security vulnerabilities.

apknife analyze -i target.apk

• -i: Path to the APK file to analyze.

---

🟢 Edit Manifest

Edit the AndroidManifest.xml of an APK.

apknife edit-manifest -i target.apk

• -i: Path to the APK file.

---

🟢 Decompile to Smali

Decompile an APK to Smali code.

apknife smali -i target.apk -o smali_output/

• -i: Path to the APK file.
• -o: Directory to save the decompiled Smali code.

---

🟢 Decode Manifest

Decode the AndroidManifest.xml of an APK.

apknife decode_manifest -i target.apk -o output_dir/

• -i: Path to the APK file.
• -o: Directory to save the decoded manifest.

---

🟢 Find onCreate Methods

Find onCreate methods in an APK.

apknife find-oncreate -i target.apk

• -i: Path to the APK file.

---

🟢 Find API Calls

Find API calls in an APK.

apknife find-api -i target.apk

• -i: Path to the APK file.

---

🟢 Scan for Vulnerabilities

Scan an APK for vulnerabilities.

apknife scan-vulnerabilities -i target.apk

• -i: Path to the APK file.

---

🟢 Scan Permissions

Scan and list permissions used by an APK.

apknife scan-permissions -i target.apk

• -i: Path to the APK file.

---

🟢 Catch RAT

Analyze an APK for Remote Access Trojan (RAT) indicators.

apknife catch_rat -i malicious.apk

• -i: Path to the APK file.

---

🟢 Extract Java Source Code

Extract Java source code from an APK.

apknife extract-java -i target.apk -o src_folder/

• -i: Path to the APK file.
• -o: Directory to save the extracted Java source code.

---

🟢 Extract Sensitive Data

Extract sensitive data from an APK.

apknife extract-sensitive -i target.apk -o sensitive_data.json

• -i: Path to the APK file.
• -o: Path to save the extracted sensitive data (JSON format).

---

🟢 Modify APK Metadata

Modify an APK's metadata (name, icon, package name).

apknife modify-apk -i target.apk --name "New App Name" --icon new_icon.png --package com.new.package

• -i: Path to the APK file.
• --name: New app name.
• --icon: Path to the new icon (any size/format).
• --package: New package name.

---

🟢 Extract DEX Files

Extract DEX files from an APK.

apknife extract-dex -i target.apk -o dex_output/

• -i: Path to the APK file.
• -o: Directory to save the extracted DEX files.

---

🟢 Scan for Protection Mechanisms

Scan an APK for protection mechanisms (e.g., Firewall, ProGuard).

apknife waf -i target.apk

• -i: Path to the APK file.

---

🟢 Interactive Mode

Launch APKnife in interactive mode.

python3 apknife.py interactive

---

🟢 Help Menu

Display the help menu with all available commands.

apknife -h

---

🟢 Update Commands

Reload the commands from the external file.

apknife update-commands

---

🟢 List Commands

Display the current list of available commands.

apknife list-commands

---

🟢 Exit Interactive Mode

Exit the interactive shell.

exit

---

⚠️ Legal Disclaimer

This tool is designed for educational and security research purposes only. Unauthorized use of APKnife on third-party applications without permission is illegal. The developers are not responsible for any misuse.

---

📜 License

APKnife is released under the MIT License – You are free to modify and distribute it for legal use.

---

💡 Contributions & Support

🚀 Contributions are welcome! Fork the repo, submit pull requests, and report issues. Let's make APKnife even better!

---

APKnife – The Double-Edged Blade of APK Analysis 🔪🧸

All rights reserved to MR_nightmare.