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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.

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🚀 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

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🔧 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

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📥 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

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⚠️ 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

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🌍 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

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📥 Cloning the Repository & Installing Dependencies

git clone https://github.com/elrashedy1992/APKnife.git
cd APKnife
pip install -r requirements.txt

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📜 Usage

🖥️ Interactive Mode

To enter interactive mode, run:

python3 apknife.py interactive

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

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🛠️ 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

python3 apknife.py sign -i modified.apk

🟢 Analyze APK for Vulnerabilities

python3 apknife.py scan_vulnerabilities -i target.apk

🟢 Detect Remote Access Trojans (RATs)

python3 apknife.py catch_rat -i malicious.apk

🟢 Extract Java Source Code

python3 apknife.py extract-java -i target.apk -o src_folder

🟢 Change APK Name

python3 apknife.py modify-apk --name -i app.apk

🟢 Change APK Icon

python3 apknife.py modify-apk --icon new_icon.png -i app.apk

🟢 Modify Package Name

python3 apknife.py modify-apk --package com.example.example -i app.apk

python3 apknife.py modify-apk --name new_name --package new.package.name --icon anysize.any -o modified_apk.apk

🟢 Scan APK Permissions

python3 apknife.py scan_permissions -i target.apk

👇help menu👇

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python3 apknife.py -h usage: apknife.py [-h] [-i INPUT] [-o OUTPUT] [-c] [--name NAME] [--icon ICON] [--package PACKAGE] {extract,build,sign,analyze,edit-manifest,smali,decode-xml,find-oncreate,find-api,scan-vulnerabilities,scan-permissions,catch_rat,extract-java,interactive,extract-sensitive,modify-apk}

APKnife: Advanced APK analysis & modification tool

positional arguments: {extract,build,sign,analyze,edit-manifest,smali,decode-xml,find-oncreate,find-api,scan-vulnerabilities,scan-permissions,catch_rat,extract-java,interactive,extract-sensitive,modify-apk} Command to execute

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit -i, --input INPUT Input APK file -o, --output OUTPUT Output file/directory -c, --compress Compress extracted Java files into a ZIP archive --name NAME New app name --icon ICON New app icon (resized automatically) --package PACKAGE New package name

⚠️ 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.

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📜 License

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

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💡 Contributions & Support

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