Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Extract Source Code from Android APK file

Procedure for decoding .apk files, step-by-step method:
Step 1:
Make a new folder and put .apk file in it (which you want to decode). Now rename the extension of this .apk file to .zip (eg.: rename from filename.apk to filename.zip) and save it. Now you get classes.dex files, etc. At this stage you are able to see drawable but not xml and java files, so continue.
Step 2:
Now extract this zip apk file in the same folder (or NEW FOLDER). Now download dex2jar from this linkhttp://code.google.com/p/dex2jar/ and extract it to the same folder (or NEW FOLDER). Move the classes.dex file into the dex2jar folder. Now open command prompt and change directory to that folder (or NEW FOLDER). Then write dex2jar classes.dex and press enter. Now you get classes.dex.dex2jar file in the same folder. Then download java decompiler from http://jd.benow.ca/ and now double click on jd-gui and click on open file. Then open classes.dex.dex2jar file from that folder. Now you get class files and save all these class files (click on file then click "save all sources" in jd-gui) by src name. At this stage you get java source but the xml files are still unreadable, so continue.
Step 3:
Now open another new folder and put these files
1.      put .apk file which you want to decode
2.      download apktool v1.x AND apktool install window (both can be downloaded at the same location) and put in the same folder
3.      download framework-res.apk file and put in the same folder (Not all apk file need framework-res.apk file)
4.      Open a command window
5.      Navigate to the root directory of APKtool and type the following command: apktool if framework-res.apk (Try below trobleshooting if not working)
6.      apktool d "fname".apk ("fname" denotes filename which you want to decode)
now you get a file folder in that folder and now you can easily read xml files also.
Step 4:
It's not any step just copy contents of both folder(in this case both new folder)to the single one
and now enjoy with source code...


Troubleshooting:
1. From Step 3-->point 5 --> apktool is not recognize as an internal command.
Solution: This may be a PATH problem,do this:
PATH=%PATH%;ApkToolPath
ApkToolPath is the directory where apktool is.
BTW, u need to download 2 files: apktool-install-windows-r05-ibot.tar.bz2 and apktool1.5.2.tar.bz2. extract both and put aapt.exe apktoo.bat apktool.jar together.