How to parse the AndroidManifest.xml file inside an .apk package

Question

This file appears to be in a binary XML format. What is this format and how can it be parsed programmatically (as opposed to using the aapt dump tool in the SDK)?

Answer 1

You can use axml2xml.pl tool developed a while ago within android-random project. It will generate the textual manifest file (AndroidManifest.xml) from the binary one.

I'm saying "textual" and not "original" because like many reverse-engineering tools this one isn't perfect and the result will not be complete. I presume either it was never feature complete or simply not forward-compatible (with newer binary encoding scheme). Whatever the reason, axml2xml.pl tool will not be able to extract all the attribute values correctly. Such attributes are minSdkVersion, targetSdkVersion and basically all attributes that are referencing resources (like strings, icons, etc.), i.e. only class names (of activities, services, etc.) are extracted correctly.

However, you can still find these missing information by running aapt tool on the original Android app file (.apk):

aapt l -a <someapp.apk>

Answer 2

for reference here is my version of Ribo's code. The main difference is that decompressXML() directly returns a String, which for my purposes was a more appropriate usage.

NOTE: my sole purpose in using Ribo's solution was to fetch an .APK file's published version from the Manifest XML file, and I confirm that for this purpose it works beautifully.

EDIT [2013-03-16]: It works beautifully IF the version is set as plain text, but if it's set to refer to a Resource XML, it'll show up as 'Resource 0x1' for example. In this particular case, you'll probably have to couple this solution to another solution that will fetch the proper string resource reference.

/**
 * Binary XML doc ending Tag
 */
public static int endDocTag = 0x00100101;

/**
 * Binary XML start Tag
 */
public static int startTag =  0x00100102;

/**
 * Binary XML end Tag
 */
public static int endTag =    0x00100103;


/**
 * Reference var for spacing
 * Used in prtIndent()
 */
public static String spaces = "                                             ";


/**
 * Parse the 'compressed' binary form of Android XML docs 
 * such as for AndroidManifest.xml in .apk files
 * Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2097813/how-to-parse-the-androidmanifest-xml-file-inside-an-apk-package/4761689#4761689
 * 
 * @param xml Encoded XML content to decompress
 */
public static String decompressXML(byte[] xml) {

    StringBuilder resultXml = new StringBuilder();

    // Compressed XML file/bytes starts with 24x bytes of data,
    // 9 32 bit words in little endian order (LSB first):
    //   0th word is 03 00 08 00
    //   3rd word SEEMS TO BE:  Offset at then of StringTable
    //   4th word is: Number of strings in string table
    // WARNING: Sometime I indiscriminently display or refer to word in 
    //   little endian storage format, or in integer format (ie MSB first).
    int numbStrings = LEW(xml, 4*4);

    // StringIndexTable starts at offset 24x, an array of 32 bit LE offsets
    // of the length/string data in the StringTable.
    int sitOff = 0x24;  // Offset of start of StringIndexTable

    // StringTable, each string is represented with a 16 bit little endian 
    // character count, followed by that number of 16 bit (LE) (Unicode) chars.
    int stOff = sitOff + numbStrings*4;  // StringTable follows StrIndexTable

    // XMLTags, The XML tag tree starts after some unknown content after the
    // StringTable.  There is some unknown data after the StringTable, scan
    // forward from this point to the flag for the start of an XML start tag.
    int xmlTagOff = LEW(xml, 3*4);  // Start from the offset in the 3rd word.
    // Scan forward until we find the bytes: 0x02011000(x00100102 in normal int)
    for (int ii=xmlTagOff; ii<xml.length-4; ii+=4) {
      if (LEW(xml, ii) == startTag) { 
        xmlTagOff = ii;  break;
      }
    } // end of hack, scanning for start of first start tag

    // XML tags and attributes:
    // Every XML start and end tag consists of 6 32 bit words:
    //   0th word: 02011000 for startTag and 03011000 for endTag 
    //   1st word: a flag?, like 38000000
    //   2nd word: Line of where this tag appeared in the original source file
    //   3rd word: FFFFFFFF ??
    //   4th word: StringIndex of NameSpace name, or FFFFFFFF for default NS
    //   5th word: StringIndex of Element Name
    //   (Note: 01011000 in 0th word means end of XML document, endDocTag)

    // Start tags (not end tags) contain 3 more words:
    //   6th word: 14001400 meaning?? 
    //   7th word: Number of Attributes that follow this tag(follow word 8th)
    //   8th word: 00000000 meaning??

    // Attributes consist of 5 words: 
    //   0th word: StringIndex of Attribute Name's Namespace, or FFFFFFFF
    //   1st word: StringIndex of Attribute Name
    //   2nd word: StringIndex of Attribute Value, or FFFFFFF if ResourceId used
    //   3rd word: Flags?
    //   4th word: str ind of attr value again, or ResourceId of value

    // TMP, dump string table to tr for debugging
    //tr.addSelect("strings", null);
    //for (int ii=0; ii<numbStrings; ii++) {
    //  // Length of string starts at StringTable plus offset in StrIndTable
    //  String str = compXmlString(xml, sitOff, stOff, ii);
    //  tr.add(String.valueOf(ii), str);
    //}
    //tr.parent();

    // Step through the XML tree element tags and attributes
    int off = xmlTagOff;
    int indent = 0;
    int startTagLineNo = -2;
    while (off < xml.length) {
      int tag0 = LEW(xml, off);
      //int tag1 = LEW(xml, off+1*4);
      int lineNo = LEW(xml, off+2*4);
      //int tag3 = LEW(xml, off+3*4);
      int nameNsSi = LEW(xml, off+4*4);
      int nameSi = LEW(xml, off+5*4);

      if (tag0 == startTag) { // XML START TAG
        int tag6 = LEW(xml, off+6*4);  // Expected to be 14001400
        int numbAttrs = LEW(xml, off+7*4);  // Number of Attributes to follow
        //int tag8 = LEW(xml, off+8*4);  // Expected to be 00000000
        off += 9*4;  // Skip over 6+3 words of startTag data
        String name = compXmlString(xml, sitOff, stOff, nameSi);
        //tr.addSelect(name, null);
        startTagLineNo = lineNo;

        // Look for the Attributes
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
        for (int ii=0; ii<numbAttrs; ii++) {
          int attrNameNsSi = LEW(xml, off);  // AttrName Namespace Str Ind, or FFFFFFFF
          int attrNameSi = LEW(xml, off+1*4);  // AttrName String Index
          int attrValueSi = LEW(xml, off+2*4); // AttrValue Str Ind, or FFFFFFFF
          int attrFlags = LEW(xml, off+3*4);  
          int attrResId = LEW(xml, off+4*4);  // AttrValue ResourceId or dup AttrValue StrInd
          off += 5*4;  // Skip over the 5 words of an attribute

          String attrName = compXmlString(xml, sitOff, stOff, attrNameSi);
          String attrValue = attrValueSi!=-1
            ? compXmlString(xml, sitOff, stOff, attrValueSi)
            : "resourceID 0x"+Integer.toHexString(attrResId);
          sb.append(" "+attrName+"=\""+attrValue+"\"");
          //tr.add(attrName, attrValue);
        }
        resultXml.append(prtIndent(indent, "<"+name+sb+">"));
        indent++;

      } else if (tag0 == endTag) { // XML END TAG
        indent--;
        off += 6*4;  // Skip over 6 words of endTag data
        String name = compXmlString(xml, sitOff, stOff, nameSi);
        resultXml.append(prtIndent(indent, "</"+name+">  (line "+startTagLineNo+"-"+lineNo+")"));
        //tr.parent();  // Step back up the NobTree

      } else if (tag0 == endDocTag) {  // END OF XML DOC TAG
        break;

      } else {
          Log.e(TAG, "  Unrecognized tag code '"+Integer.toHexString(tag0)
          +"' at offset "+off);
        break;
      }
    } // end of while loop scanning tags and attributes of XML tree
    Log.i(TAG, "    end at offset "+off);

    return resultXml.toString();
} // end of decompressXML


/**
 * Tool Method for decompressXML();
 * Compute binary XML to its string format 
 * Source: Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2097813/how-to-parse-the-androidmanifest-xml-file-inside-an-apk-package/4761689#4761689
 * 
 * @param xml Binary-formatted XML
 * @param sitOff
 * @param stOff
 * @param strInd
 * @return String-formatted XML
 */
public static String compXmlString(byte[] xml, int sitOff, int stOff, int strInd) {
  if (strInd < 0) return null;
  int strOff = stOff + LEW(xml, sitOff+strInd*4);
  return compXmlStringAt(xml, strOff);
}


/**
 * Tool Method for decompressXML(); 
 * Apply indentation
 * 
 * @param indent Indentation level
 * @param str String to indent
 * @return Indented string
 */
public static String prtIndent(int indent, String str) {

    return (spaces.substring(0, Math.min(indent*2, spaces.length()))+str);
}


/** 
 * Tool method for decompressXML()
 * Return the string stored in StringTable format at
 * offset strOff.  This offset points to the 16 bit string length, which 
 * is followed by that number of 16 bit (Unicode) chars.
 * 
 * @param arr StringTable array
 * @param strOff Offset to get string from
 * @return String from StringTable at offset strOff
 * 
 */
public static String compXmlStringAt(byte[] arr, int strOff) {
  int strLen = arr[strOff+1]<<8&0xff00 | arr[strOff]&0xff;
  byte[] chars = new byte[strLen];
  for (int ii=0; ii<strLen; ii++) {
    chars[ii] = arr[strOff+2+ii*2];
  }
  return new String(chars);  // Hack, just use 8 byte chars
} // end of compXmlStringAt


/** 
 * Return value of a Little Endian 32 bit word from the byte array
 *   at offset off.
 * 
 * @param arr Byte array with 32 bit word
 * @param off Offset to get word from
 * @return Value of Little Endian 32 bit word specified
 */
public static int LEW(byte[] arr, int off) {
  return arr[off+3]<<24&0xff000000 | arr[off+2]<<16&0xff0000
    | arr[off+1]<<8&0xff00 | arr[off]&0xFF;
} // end of LEW

Hope it can help other people too.

Answer 3

it can be helpful

public static int vCodeApk(String path) {
    PackageManager pm = G.context.getPackageManager();
    PackageInfo info = pm.getPackageArchiveInfo(path, 0);
    return info.versionCode;
    //        Toast.makeText(this, "VersionCode : " + info.versionCode + ", VersionName : " + info.versionName, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}

G is my Application class :

public class G extends Application {

Answer 4

In case it's useful, here's a C++ version of the Java snippet posted by Ribo:

struct decompressXML
{
    // decompressXML -- Parse the 'compressed' binary form of Android XML docs 
    // such as for AndroidManifest.xml in .apk files
    enum
    {
        endDocTag = 0x00100101,
        startTag =  0x00100102,
        endTag =    0x00100103
    };

    decompressXML(const BYTE* xml, int cb) {
    // Compressed XML file/bytes starts with 24x bytes of data,
    // 9 32 bit words in little endian order (LSB first):
    //   0th word is 03 00 08 00
    //   3rd word SEEMS TO BE:  Offset at then of StringTable
    //   4th word is: Number of strings in string table
    // WARNING: Sometime I indiscriminently display or refer to word in 
    //   little endian storage format, or in integer format (ie MSB first).
    int numbStrings = LEW(xml, cb, 4*4);

    // StringIndexTable starts at offset 24x, an array of 32 bit LE offsets
    // of the length/string data in the StringTable.
    int sitOff = 0x24;  // Offset of start of StringIndexTable

    // StringTable, each string is represented with a 16 bit little endian 
    // character count, followed by that number of 16 bit (LE) (Unicode) chars.
    int stOff = sitOff + numbStrings*4;  // StringTable follows StrIndexTable

    // XMLTags, The XML tag tree starts after some unknown content after the
    // StringTable.  There is some unknown data after the StringTable, scan
    // forward from this point to the flag for the start of an XML start tag.
    int xmlTagOff = LEW(xml, cb, 3*4);  // Start from the offset in the 3rd word.
    // Scan forward until we find the bytes: 0x02011000(x00100102 in normal int)
    for (int ii=xmlTagOff; ii<cb-4; ii+=4) {
      if (LEW(xml, cb, ii) == startTag) { 
        xmlTagOff = ii;  break;
      }
    } // end of hack, scanning for start of first start tag

    // XML tags and attributes:
    // Every XML start and end tag consists of 6 32 bit words:
    //   0th word: 02011000 for startTag and 03011000 for endTag 
    //   1st word: a flag?, like 38000000
    //   2nd word: Line of where this tag appeared in the original source file
    //   3rd word: FFFFFFFF ??
    //   4th word: StringIndex of NameSpace name, or FFFFFFFF for default NS
    //   5th word: StringIndex of Element Name
    //   (Note: 01011000 in 0th word means end of XML document, endDocTag)

    // Start tags (not end tags) contain 3 more words:
    //   6th word: 14001400 meaning?? 
    //   7th word: Number of Attributes that follow this tag(follow word 8th)
    //   8th word: 00000000 meaning??

    // Attributes consist of 5 words: 
    //   0th word: StringIndex of Attribute Name's Namespace, or FFFFFFFF
    //   1st word: StringIndex of Attribute Name
    //   2nd word: StringIndex of Attribute Value, or FFFFFFF if ResourceId used
    //   3rd word: Flags?
    //   4th word: str ind of attr value again, or ResourceId of value

    // TMP, dump string table to tr for debugging
    //tr.addSelect("strings", null);
    //for (int ii=0; ii<numbStrings; ii++) {
    //  // Length of string starts at StringTable plus offset in StrIndTable
    //  String str = compXmlString(xml, sitOff, stOff, ii);
    //  tr.add(String.valueOf(ii), str);
    //}
    //tr.parent();

    // Step through the XML tree element tags and attributes
    int off = xmlTagOff;
    int indent = 0;
    int startTagLineNo = -2;
    while (off < cb) {
      int tag0 = LEW(xml, cb, off);
      //int tag1 = LEW(xml, off+1*4);
      int lineNo = LEW(xml, cb, off+2*4);
      //int tag3 = LEW(xml, off+3*4);
      int nameNsSi = LEW(xml, cb, off+4*4);
      int nameSi = LEW(xml, cb, off+5*4);

      if (tag0 == startTag) { // XML START TAG
        int tag6 = LEW(xml, cb, off+6*4);  // Expected to be 14001400
        int numbAttrs = LEW(xml, cb, off+7*4);  // Number of Attributes to follow
        //int tag8 = LEW(xml, off+8*4);  // Expected to be 00000000
        off += 9*4;  // Skip over 6+3 words of startTag data
        std::string name = compXmlString(xml, cb, sitOff, stOff, nameSi);
        //tr.addSelect(name, null);
        startTagLineNo = lineNo;

        // Look for the Attributes
        std::string sb;
        for (int ii=0; ii<numbAttrs; ii++) {
          int attrNameNsSi = LEW(xml, cb, off);  // AttrName Namespace Str Ind, or FFFFFFFF
          int attrNameSi = LEW(xml, cb, off+1*4);  // AttrName String Index
          int attrValueSi = LEW(xml, cb, off+2*4); // AttrValue Str Ind, or FFFFFFFF
          int attrFlags = LEW(xml, cb, off+3*4);  
          int attrResId = LEW(xml, cb, off+4*4);  // AttrValue ResourceId or dup AttrValue StrInd
          off += 5*4;  // Skip over the 5 words of an attribute

          std::string attrName = compXmlString(xml, cb, sitOff, stOff, attrNameSi);
          std::string attrValue = attrValueSi!=-1
            ? compXmlString(xml, cb, sitOff, stOff, attrValueSi)
            : "resourceID 0x"+toHexString(attrResId);
          sb.append(" "+attrName+"=\""+attrValue+"\"");
          //tr.add(attrName, attrValue);
        }
        prtIndent(indent, "<"+name+sb+">");
        indent++;

      } else if (tag0 == endTag) { // XML END TAG
        indent--;
        off += 6*4;  // Skip over 6 words of endTag data
        std::string name = compXmlString(xml, cb, sitOff, stOff, nameSi);
        prtIndent(indent, "</"+name+">  (line "+toIntString(startTagLineNo)+"-"+toIntString(lineNo)+")");
        //tr.parent();  // Step back up the NobTree

      } else if (tag0 == endDocTag) {  // END OF XML DOC TAG
        break;

      } else {
        prt("  Unrecognized tag code '"+toHexString(tag0)
          +"' at offset "+toIntString(off));
        break;
      }
    } // end of while loop scanning tags and attributes of XML tree
    prt("    end at offset "+off);
    } // end of decompressXML


    std::string compXmlString(const BYTE* xml, int cb, int sitOff, int stOff, int strInd) {
      if (strInd < 0) return std::string("");
      int strOff = stOff + LEW(xml, cb, sitOff+strInd*4);
      return compXmlStringAt(xml, cb, strOff);
    }

    void prt(std::string str)
    {
        printf("%s", str.c_str());
    }
    void prtIndent(int indent, std::string str) {
        char spaces[46];
        memset(spaces, ' ', sizeof(spaces));
        spaces[min(indent*2,  sizeof(spaces) - 1)] = 0;
        prt(spaces);
        prt(str);
        prt("\n");
    }


    // compXmlStringAt -- Return the string stored in StringTable format at
    // offset strOff.  This offset points to the 16 bit string length, which 
    // is followed by that number of 16 bit (Unicode) chars.
    std::string compXmlStringAt(const BYTE* arr, int cb, int strOff) {
        if (cb < strOff + 2) return std::string("");
      int strLen = arr[strOff+1]<<8&0xff00 | arr[strOff]&0xff;
      char* chars = new char[strLen + 1];
      chars[strLen] = 0;
      for (int ii=0; ii<strLen; ii++) {
          if (cb < strOff + 2 + ii * 2)
          {
              chars[ii] = 0;
              break;
          }
        chars[ii] = arr[strOff+2+ii*2];
      }
      std::string str(chars);
      free(chars);
      return str;
    } // end of compXmlStringAt


    // LEW -- Return value of a Little Endian 32 bit word from the byte array
    //   at offset off.
    int LEW(const BYTE* arr, int cb, int off) {
      return (cb > off + 3) ? ( arr[off+3]<<24&0xff000000 | arr[off+2]<<16&0xff0000
          | arr[off+1]<<8&0xff00 | arr[off]&0xFF ) : 0;
    } // end of LEW

    std::string toHexString(DWORD attrResId)
    {
        char ch[20];
        sprintf_s(ch, 20, "%lx", attrResId);
        return std::string(ch);
    }
    std::string toIntString(int i)
    {
        char ch[20];
        sprintf_s(ch, 20, "%ld", i);
        return std::string(ch);
    }
};