Decompiling an APK

The first step in decompiling an APK is to get ahold of one. There are a number of ways to do this, but I prefer to use the adb command (Android debug bridge) tool that comes with the Android Developer Kit as part of the Android SDK. The adb command allows you to pull a copy of the APK off the phone onto your PC for further analysis.

To download an APK onto to your PC from your phone, connect your phone to your PC using your USB phone cable and then turn on the USB debugging under the developer options on your Android phone. Next, you need to know the name of the APK that you want. You don’t need to root the phone if you’re running anything below Android 4.3 to pull an APK off the phone because the naming convention and location ...

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