[Soot-list] Android Studio and Soot

[Ladislav Dorotík]

Hello guys,

I am czech student and I need to integrate Soot software under Android native app (I have added dependencies, imported libs). My goal is to create call graph from an APK file inside android device. I can get APK information, as permissions, activities and so on, but I need to create call graph, for which I want use soot (ideal in dot format), then use it to compare the graph to database of graphs.

My problem is with platforms directory:

I have encountered situations where nothing for platforms directory works. I have tried to locate platform dir just from SDK location of android studio, I have tried to locate it in my project (as jar), even on the sdcard - I have tried that with the jars from the android studio, but also with jars from Sable Github.

I am really stuck because everything I try ends with errors in the attachment - directory does not exist, but well it exists for sure.

I have discovered one weird behavior which can be the reason. This is my path to platformDir:

 String androidJarPath = "C:\\Users\\ladis\\AppData\\Local\\Android\\Sdk\\platforms";

But in the error, the path appears with "/" at the start, so that may be some collision, so I have tried to locate the path only with "/", but same error appeared.

I have tried to load it from sources, so the "/" character is matching the way of working with paths, then my path looked like "/platforms/" (with downloaded jar files of android OSs), but that does not working at all.

I have tried to load android-jar even from the sd card, but the same error showed up. I wanted to substitute the path in your android-infoflow, so the software cant adds the first "/", but these are read-only jars.

I have also tried to change Paths, so the path was like "C:\\Users\\ladis\\AppData\\Local\\Android\\Sdk\\platforms\\Android-30";   and "C:\\Users\\ladis\\AppData\\Local\\Android\\Sdk\\platforms\\Android-30\\android.jar", which I suppose is not the right way, but I was so depressed, that I had to try everything.

For me, it appears like two options - 

1. Is it possible, that my SDK/platforms folder must be for example android 16 because newer ones can produce this error?

2. Is it possible, that soot is adding this one "/" character at the start which makes the collision? 

I am absolutely helpless. I haven't found such a powerful framework as soot - as it can create callgraph from apk, but this is something I haven't expected. There must be some way to make it work.

I had also seen in GitHub issues, that lot of commands are deprecated and new ones are used, for example Infoflow Config. I am probably using old code, or something that I am not using at all. For example on old github issues there are set sources and sinkns with method called on SetupApplication object, but this method cant be found in class source files. 

I found this framework really attractive and powerful, but building it with Android Studio is kinda problematic, even the dependencies from maven was causing problems, but that was solved by manually adding jar files into /libs folder, like in IntelliJ for example.

I appreciate your work and hope for finding the problem.

Yours sincerely,

Ladislav Dorotík