Tool verification record
This directory is the evidence record for the apk-reverse skill measured against real
targets, kept separate from the skill itself so the Coverage statement in SKILL.md can be
checked against the runs behind it, and so a later reader can tell which claims were observed,
which were inferred, and which are still unverified.
It is not a set of target-specific notes kept for reuse, and it deliberately carries no target identity. The measurements are about the tools and the skill; they stay valid whichever APK produced them. Where a concrete figure was needed to make a point (a class count, a file size, a build time) the figure is kept and the target is named generically.
Targets measured: Flutter AOT applications, multi-dex, mid-size native library sets, no packer.
The APKs themselves are not in this repository (.gitignore excludes *.apk, and tools/).
Workbench paths are an operation record, not a pointer. A record may say a run happened at
tools/_work/... so the command can be judged; .gitignore excludes tools/, so that path is not
something a reader can open. Anything a reader is meant to follow is named under
docs/tool-verification/ or inside the skill — that rule is why a reference document never cites a
tools/ path as its evidence, even when the work happened there.
Strength labels
Every claim carries one of three labels, used the same way references/verification.md uses them:
- observed — reproduced here, with the exact command and its output.
- inferred — follows from observed facts, but the step itself was not executed.
- unverified — assumed or reported by a tool and not independently confirmed.
Index
| File | Covers |
|---|---|
TOOL-VERDICTS.md |
One verdict per tested script and external toolchain, with the independent cross-check behind it |
FINDINGS.md |
Findings about the skill itself: defects, contradictions, boundary evidence |
REPO-DECISIONS.md |
What changed in the repo as a result, and what deliberately did not |
Extension-pass record
The extension pass (the six coverage gaps named in the external review: module ecosystem, extraction shells and VMP, emulation/RPC, native DBI, kernel-level environment, protocol layers) keeps its evidence here, one file per topic, in the same three labels:
| File | Covers |
|---|---|
EXTENSION-device-run.md |
The on-device run against a hardened Flutter sample: the two control runs, the frida refusals, the twice-corrected pid-drift attribution, the failed-dump artefacts checked with dex_dump_validate.py, and a shared-device hazard measured with Stalker |
EXTENSION-unpacking.md |
Extraction-shell diagnosis by trivial-body ratio, dex_dump_validate.py against a fixture derived from the sample's own shell dex, and the tool's own defect found during the run |
EXTENSION-rootdump.md |
The root-side /proc/<pid>/maps + mem route that does not use frida: 17 real dex images recovered, the shell skeleton they are not, four device-shell traps, and the negative result on anonymous/ART-heap scanning |
EXTENSION-lsposed.md |
Module route: the gradle-free build chain with timings, three build traps, LSPosed config-DB anatomy, the module that could never have worked, and the root-hiding configuration the device actually has |
EXTENSION-emulation-rpc.md |
ASC/ddc measured on a hardened APK, Frida-RPC exercised end to end on a live device, and the unidbg build repair |
EXTENSION-native-dbi.md |
Stalker: the zero-event boundary, the crash from following a hot libc export, and an offline protobuf round-trip that caught a defect in its own decoder |
EXTENSION-kernel-ondevice.md |
The MT Manager APK MCP probe, the module-environment facts it could verify, and the kernel routes that this device's 4.14 kernel puts out of reach |
Benchmark-pass record
The benchmark pass put public targets under the documented routes — tests/benchmark.md is the
matrix, and these files are the evidence behind its rows. Same three labels. Several of these rows
came back negative, and four of them overturned a conclusion this repository had already recorded;
those are called out in the matrix rather than buried here.
| File | Covers |
|---|---|
EXTENSION-benchmark-l1-l3.md |
The first two matrix rows: the L1 equal-length patch -> repack -> re-sign chain with its on-screen behaviour change and its zero-change control, and the L3 time-to-death baseline, the two spawn/patch/detach orderings that cannot work, and the terminate path that patching the obvious death site does not stop |
EXTENSION-extraction-shell-bench.md |
dex_dump_validate.py against an 11-variant skeleton set: the trivial-body ratio as a bimodal result rather than a threshold, the three script defects the variants exposed, and the ranking that pointed at a modified image until independent review caught it |
EXTENSION-stalker-exclude.md |
Stalker exclusion measured across three arms: the no-follow baseline, the follow that kills the process, and the follow with 20 modules excluded that survives but still delivers zero events |
EXTENSION-java2c.md |
Java2C against JNI sinking: native-declaration density roughly 2000x apart, why a Java_* symbol search fails silently, and the Dex-to-C build chain no toolchain on this host could complete |
EXTENSION-vmp-diff.md |
The known-plaintext differential: a 218-of-224-opcode coverage fixture, a closed-loop check that recovered 218/218 mappings with zero fabrications, and the one link that cannot be automated |
EXTENSION-kernel-weapons.md |
The generated KernelSU/APatch scaffold and its three kernel-side templates, all shipped unbuilt, plus the structural correction that a userspace module cannot change a syscall return value |
EXTENSION-split-apk.md |
Two real split sets through both branches: unified re-signing, the merge that is refused by design, the merge that succeeds, and the signer chain this host actually needs |
EXTENSION-reconstruction.md |
The reconstruction pass: the doctor capability closure (a JDK-only PATH used to report "can re-sign", now BLOCKED with a next action), the zip rebuild that stops dropping per-entry metadata (zipalign -c -v 4 fails the old output and passes the new), and check_commands.py catching a documented flag that does not exist |
EXTENSION-test-harness.md |
The executable half of the evidence: what tests/ asserts and what it measured, the dex_patch_bytes regression reproduced byte-for-byte, the 153 skips and 26 xfails that form the exit-code work order, the device-bound exclusion forced by an incident where the suite drove a real phone, and CI written but never run |
EXTENSION-rasc.md |
The Rust ASC measured against the Python one: identical class-definition sets on two archives, the speedup per scenario, the build (no prebuilt artifact exists, and a 32-bit MinGW cannot link it), and the enum shape whose method bodies it drops with no warning |
EXTENSION-protobuf-raw.md |
A schema-free decoder cross-checked against the official runtime and a real DataStore container, with the packed-boundary and proto3-zero ambiguities reproduced on real bytes |
Absorption-pass record
A later pass absorbed mechanics from external skill repositories (reverse-skill,
awesome-game-security, android-reverse-engineering-claude-skill, MobileRE-Skill), keeping each
project's own discipline: only the phase, the checklist and the command pattern cross over, with the
source URL and the access date recorded, and nothing vendored as a runtime dependency. These files
live here rather than in the skill because two of them corrected a claim the repository had already
written down.
| File | Covers |
|---|---|
EXTENSION-desensitization.md |
The leak scanner's rules and exemptions, its four RESULT= states and exit codes, the escaping false positives, and the pass that found its own evidence file leaking 26 strong hits — the fixture's literal match values, quoted to prove the rules fire |
EXTENSION-dart-aot-formats.md |
Two string-table claims tested against a real dual-ABI Flutter app: the arm64 packed scheme confirmed against literal tag bytes, and the assumed armv7 len*2/UTF-16 form refuted — the 32-bit record is [header u32][byte-count u32le][UTF-8], and the extractor's zero is a format mismatch rather than an empty table |
EXTENSION-detection-pipeline.md |
Naming the check that fires: three arms on a public MASTG target (control alive, probe arm dead in ≈300 ms via strstr("frida"), with the TracerPid=0 versus 4-frida-mappings asymmetry), svc_scan.py's two decoders agreeing on an identical 214-site set, the layered Java-to-svc descent, and the ptrace-free dump boundary on targets whose dex is deflated inside the APK |
Adding a run
Record the tools, versions and exact commands, and label each claim. Keep target-specific facts out: what belongs here is what a future reader can apply to a different APK — a defect, a measured cost, a method that did or did not work, and the cross-check that settled it.