Reverse Engineering

Static analysis tools automate the deterministic subset of what a reverse engineer checks by hand — manifest parsing, string scanning, signature verification. This covers where that automation reaches its limits, and the standard toolchain (apktool, jadx, otool, class-dump) used to go further manually.

ToolPlatformUsed for
apktoolAndroidDecoding resources and the manifest from an APK
jadxAndroidReading decompiled Java from DEX bytecode
dexdumpAndroidInspecting raw DEX bytecode directly
otooliOSInspecting Mach-O binary load commands and linked libraries
class-dumpiOSRecovering Objective-C class/method signatures from a binary
The standard manual toolchain the featured articles reference for confirming a static finding by hand.