In this chapter, we will set up a lab with all the tools that are required for the rest of the book. This first chapter is an essential part of the book for those who are new to Android security. It will help us to have an arsenal of tools required for Android security in one place. These are some of the major topics that we will discuss in this chapter:
- Setting up the Android environment
- Installing the tools required for app assessments
- Installing the tools required for assessing the security of the mobile backend
- Installing vulnerable apps
- An introduction to Android Debug Bridge (adb)
This section explains the tools required for the rest of the chapters. We will start with setting up Android Studio, which is required for developing Android apps, and then move on to creating an Android Virtual Device (AVD). Finally, we will install the necessary tools to assess the security of Android devices and apps. Most of the installation steps shown here are for the Windows platform. If tools are used on other platforms, it will be mentioned explicitly.
Java is one of the necessary dependencies for some of the tools, such as Android Studio and Burp Suite. So, download and install Java from the following link:
The following are the steps to install Java:
- Run the installer:
- Leave all the settings as defaults unless you have a reason to change it. Click Next till you see the following screen:
- The preceding screenshot shows the path to your Java installation. Make sure that you are OK with the path shown here. If not, go back and change it according to your needs.
- Follow the steps shown by the installer and continue with the installation until the following window appears:
- This finishes the installation. Just click the Close button and check your Java installation by opening a new command prompt and running the following command:
That finishes our first installation in this book.