Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11. Android App Analysis and
Overview of Forensic Tools
Third-party applications are commonly used by smartphone users. Android users download
and install several apps from app stores such as Android Market and Google Play. During
forensic investigations, it is often helpful to perform an analysis of these apps to retrieve
valuable data and to detect any malware. For instance, a photo vault app might lock sensit-
ive images present on the device. Hence, it would be of great significance to have the
knowledge to identify the passcode for the photo vault app. While the data extraction and
data recovery techniques discussed in earlier chapters provide access to valuable data, app
analysis would help us to gain information about the specifics of an application, such as
preferences and permissions. This chapter covers the techniques to reverse engineer an
Android application and also throws light on some available forensic tools that may be ex-
tremely helpful during forensic acquisition and analysis.
