pwnlib.adb — Android Debug Bridge

Provides utilities for interacting with Android devices via the Android Debug Bridge.

Using Android Devices with Pwntools

Pwntools tries to be as easy as possible to use with Android devices.

If you have only one device attached, everything “just works”.

If you have multiple devices, you have a handful of options to select one, or iterate over the devices.

First and most important is the context.device property, which declares the “currently” selected device in any scope. It can be set manually to a serial number, or to a Device instance.

# Take the first available device
context.device = adb.wait_for_device()

# Set a device by serial number
context.device = 'ZX1G22LH8S'

# Set a device by its product name
for device in adb.devices():
    if device.product == 'shamu':
        break
else:
    error("Could not find any shamus!")

Once a device is selected, you can operate on it with any of the functions in the pwnlib.adb module.

# Get a process listing
print(adb.process(['ps']).recvall())

# Fetch properties
print(adb.properties.ro.build.fingerprint)

# Read and write files
print(adb.read('/proc/version'))
adb.write('/data/local/tmp/foo', 'my data')
class pwnlib.adb.adb.AdbDevice(serial, type, port=None, product='unknown', model='unknown', device='unknown', features=None, **kw)[source]

Encapsulates information about a connected device.

Example:

 >>> device = adb.wait_for_device()
 >>> device.arch
 'amd64'
 >>> device.bits
 64
 >>> device.os
 'android'
 >>> device.product  
 'sdk_...phone_...'
 >>> device.serial
 'emulator-5554'
__getattr__(name)[source]

Provides scoped access to adb module propertise, in the context of this device.

 >>> property = 'ro.build.fingerprint'
 >>> device = adb.wait_for_device()
 >>> adb.getprop(property) == device.getprop(property)
 True
__init__(serial, type, port=None, product='unknown', model='unknown', device='unknown', features=None, **kw)[source]
__repr__()[source]

Return repr(self).

__str__()[source]

Return str(self).

__wrapped(function)[source]

Wrapps a callable in a scope which selects the current device.

class pwnlib.adb.adb.Partitions[source]

Enable access to partitions

Example:

 >>> hex(adb.partitions.vda.size) 
 '0x...000'
__dir__()[source]

Default dir() implementation.

__weakref__[source]

list of weak references to the object (if defined)

pwnlib.adb.adb._build_date()[source]

Returns the build date in the form YYYY-MM-DD as a string

pwnlib.adb.adb.adb(argv, *a, **kw)[source]

Returns the output of an ADB subcommand.

 >>> adb.adb('get-serialno')
 b'emulator-5554\n'
 >>> adb.adb(['shell', 'uname']) # it is better to use adb.process
 b'Linux\n'
pwnlib.adb.adb.boot_time() int[source]
Returns

Boot time of the device, in Unix time, rounded to the nearest second.

Example:

 >>> import time
 >>> adb.boot_time() < time.time()
 True
pwnlib.adb.adb.build()[source]

Returns the Build ID of the device.

pwnlib.adb.adb.compile(source)[source]

Compile a source file or project with the Android NDK.

Example:

 >>> temp = tempfile.mktemp('.c')
 >>> write(temp, '''
 ... #include <stdio.h>
 ... static char buf[4096];
 ... int main() {
 ...   FILE *fp = fopen("/proc/self/maps", "r");
 ...   int n = fread(buf, 1, sizeof(buf), fp);
 ...   fwrite(buf, 1, n, stdout);
 ...   return 0;
 ... }''')
 >>> filename = adb.compile(temp)
 >>> sent = adb.push(filename, "/data/local/tmp")
 >>> adb.process(sent).recvall() 
 b'... /system/lib64/libc.so\n...'
pwnlib.adb.adb.current_device(any=False)[source]

Returns an AdbDevice instance for the currently-selected device (via context.device).

 >>> device = adb.current_device(any=True)
 >>> device  
 AdbDevice(serial='emulator-5554', type='device', port='emulator', product='sdk_...phone_...', model='...', device='generic...')
 >>> device.port
 'emulator'
pwnlib.adb.adb.devices(serial=None)[source]

Returns a list of Device objects corresponding to the connected devices.

pwnlib.adb.adb.disable_verity()[source]

Disables dm-verity on the device.

pwnlib.adb.adb.exists(path)[source]

Return True if path exists on the target device.

Examples:

 >>> adb.exists('/')
 True
 >>> adb.exists('/etc/hosts')
 True
 >>> adb.exists('/does/not/exist')
 False
pwnlib.adb.adb.fastboot(args, *a, **kw)[source]

Executes a fastboot command.

Returns

The command output.

pwnlib.adb.adb.find_ndk_project_root(source)[source]

Given a directory path, find the topmost project root.

tl;dr “foo/bar/jni/baz.cpp” ==> “foo/bar”

pwnlib.adb.adb.fingerprint()[source]

Returns the device build fingerprint.

pwnlib.adb.adb.forward(port)[source]

Sets up a port to forward to the device.

pwnlib.adb.adb.getprop(name=None)[source]

Reads a properties from the system property store.

Parameters

name (str) – Optional, read a single property.

Returns

If name is not specified, a dict of all properties is returned. Otherwise, a string is returned with the contents of the named property.

Example:

 >>> adb.getprop() 
 {...}
pwnlib.adb.adb.install(apk, *arguments)[source]

Install an APK onto the device.

This is a wrapper around ‘pm install’, which backs ‘adb install’.

Parameters
  • apk (str) – Path to the APK to intall (e.g. 'foo.apk')

  • arguments – Supplementary arguments to ‘pm install’, e.g. '-l', '-g'.

pwnlib.adb.adb.interactive(**kw)[source]

Spawns an interactive shell.

pwnlib.adb.adb.isdir(path)[source]

Return True if path is a on the target device.

Examples:

 >>> adb.isdir('/')
 True
 >>> adb.isdir('/init')
 False
 >>> adb.isdir('/does/not/exist')
 False
pwnlib.adb.adb.listdir(directory='/')[source]

Returns a list containing the entries in the provided directory.

Note

This uses the SYNC LIST functionality, which runs in the adbd SELinux context. If adbd is running in the su domain (‘adb root’), this behaves as expected.

Otherwise, less files may be returned due to restrictive SELinux policies on adbd.

pwnlib.adb.adb.logcat(stream=False)[source]

Reads the system log file.

By default, causes logcat to exit after reading the file.

Parameters

stream (bool) – If True, the contents are streamed rather than read in a one-shot manner. Default is False.

Returns

If stream is False, returns a string containing the log data. Otherwise, it returns a pwnlib.tubes.tube.tube connected to the log output.

pwnlib.adb.adb.makedirs(path)[source]

Create a directory and all parent directories on the target device.

Note

Silently succeeds if the directory already exists.

Examples:

 >>> adb.makedirs('/data/local/tmp/this/is/a/directory/hierarchy')
 >>> adb.listdir('/data/local/tmp/this/is/a/directory')
 ['hierarchy']
pwnlib.adb.adb.mkdir(path)[source]

Create a directory on the target device.

Note

Silently succeeds if the directory already exists.

Parameters

path (str) – Directory to create.

Examples:

 >>> adb.mkdir('/')

 >>> path = '/data/local/tmp/mkdir_test'
 >>> adb.exists(path)
 False
 >>> adb.mkdir(path)
 >>> adb.exists(path)
 True

 >>> adb.mkdir('/init')
 Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
 PwnlibException: mkdir failed for /init, File exists
pwnlib.adb.adb.packages()[source]

Returns a list of packages installed on the system

pwnlib.adb.adb.pidof(name)[source]

Returns a list of PIDs for the named process.

pwnlib.adb.adb.proc_exe(pid)[source]

Returns the full path of the executable for the provided PID.

Example:

 >>> adb.proc_exe(1)
 b'/init'
pwnlib.adb.adb.process(argv, *a, **kw)[source]

Execute a process on the device.

See pwnlib.tubes.process.process documentation for more info.

Returns

A pwnlib.tubes.process.process tube.

Examples:

 >>> adb.root()
 >>> print(adb.process(['cat','/proc/version']).recvall().decode('utf-8')) 
 Linux version ...
pwnlib.adb.adb.product()[source]

Returns the device product identifier.

pwnlib.adb.adb.pull(remote_path, local_path=None)[source]

Download a file from the device.

Parameters
  • remote_path (str) – Path or directory of the file on the device.

  • local_path (str) – Path to save the file to. Uses the file’s name by default.

Returns

The contents of the file.

Example:

 >>> _=adb.pull('/proc/version', './proc-version')
 >>> print(read('./proc-version').decode('utf-8')) 
 Linux version ...
pwnlib.adb.adb.push(local_path, remote_path)[source]

Upload a file to the device.

Parameters
  • local_path (str) – Path to the local file to push.

  • remote_path (str) – Path or directory to store the file on the device.

Returns

Remote path of the file.

Example:

 >>> write('./filename', 'contents')
 >>> adb.push('./filename', '/data/local/tmp')
 '/data/local/tmp/filename'
 >>> adb.read('/data/local/tmp/filename')
 b'contents'
 >>> adb.push('./filename', '/does/not/exist')
 Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
 PwnlibException: Could not stat '/does/not/exist'
pwnlib.adb.adb.read(path, target=None, callback=None)[source]

Download a file from the device, and extract its contents.

Parameters
  • path (str) – Path to the file on the device.

  • target (str) – Optional, location to store the file. Uses a temporary file by default.

  • callback (callable) – See the documentation for adb.protocol.AdbClient.read.

Examples:

 >>> print(adb.read('/proc/version').decode('utf-8')) 
 Linux version ...
 >>> adb.read('/does/not/exist')
 Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
 PwnlibException: Could not stat '/does/not/exist'
pwnlib.adb.adb.reboot(wait=True)[source]

Reboots the device.

pwnlib.adb.adb.reboot_bootloader()[source]

Reboots the device to the bootloader.

pwnlib.adb.adb.remount()[source]

Remounts the filesystem as writable.

pwnlib.adb.adb.root()[source]

Restarts adbd as root.

 >>> adb.root()
pwnlib.adb.adb.setprop(name, value)[source]

Writes a property to the system property store.

pwnlib.adb.adb.shell(**kw)[source]

Returns an interactive shell.

pwnlib.adb.adb.uninstall(package, *arguments)[source]

Uninstall an APK from the device.

This is a wrapper around ‘pm uninstall’, which backs ‘adb uninstall’.

Parameters
  • package (str) – Name of the package to uninstall (e.g. 'com.foo.MyPackage')

  • arguments – Supplementary arguments to 'pm install', e.g. '-k'.

Unlinks a file or directory on the target device.

Examples:

 >>> adb.unlink("/does/not/exist")
 Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
 PwnlibException: Could not unlink '/does/not/exist': Does not exist

 >>> filename = '/data/local/tmp/unlink-test'
 >>> adb.write(filename, 'hello')
 >>> adb.exists(filename)
 True
 >>> adb.unlink(filename)
 >>> adb.exists(filename)
 False

 >>> adb.mkdir(filename)
 >>> adb.write(filename + '/contents', 'hello')
 >>> adb.unlink(filename)
 Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
 PwnlibException: Cannot delete non-empty directory '/data/local/tmp/unlink-test' without recursive=True

 >>> adb.unlink(filename, recursive=True)
 >>> adb.exists(filename)
 False
pwnlib.adb.adb.unlock_bootloader()[source]

Unlocks the bootloader of the device.

Note

This requires physical interaction with the device.

pwnlib.adb.adb.unroot()[source]

Restarts adbd as AID_SHELL.

pwnlib.adb.adb.uptime() float[source]
Returns

Uptime of the device, in seconds

Example:

 >>> adb.uptime() > 3 # normally AVD takes ~7 seconds to boot
 True
pwnlib.adb.adb.version()[source]

Returns rthe platform version as a tuple.

pwnlib.adb.adb.wait_for_device(kick=False)[source]

Waits for a device to be connected.

By default, waits for the currently-selected device (via context.device). To wait for a specific device, set context.device. To wait for any device, clear context.device.

Returns

An AdbDevice instance for the device.

Examples:

 >>> device = adb.wait_for_device()
pwnlib.adb.adb.which(name, all=False, *a, **kw)[source]

Retrieves the full path to a binary in $PATH on the device

Parameters
  • name (str) – Binary name

  • all (bool) – Whether to return all paths, or just the first

  • *a – Additional arguments for adb.process()

  • **kw – Additional arguments for adb.process()

Returns

Either a path, or list of paths

Example:

 >>> adb.which('sh')
 '/system/bin/sh'
 >>> adb.which('sh', all=True)
 ['/system/bin/sh']

 >>> adb.which('foobar') is None
 True
 >>> adb.which('foobar', all=True)
 []
pwnlib.adb.adb.whoami()[source]

Returns current shell user

Example:

>>> adb.whoami()
b'root'
pwnlib.adb.adb.write(path, data=b'')[source]

Create a file on the device with the provided contents.

Parameters
  • path (str) – Path to the file on the device

  • data (str) – Contents to store in the file

Examples:

 >>> adb.write('/dev/null', b'data')
 >>> adb.write('/data/local/tmp/')

This file exists only for backward compatibility