[Q] Android Development with tcpdump. - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi, sorry l haven't yet reached the minimum 10 posts, but l'm having trouble finding information online, mainly due to my naivety with programming, and l'd really appreciate any sort of advice.
I'm creating an android application that will sniff the entire network and display the results to screen. I'm aware of similar applications in the market however from my research l have found them to only monitor the packets on the device itself, not including the other traffic on the network (caused by other devices).
make sense? It is possible to tap into the network and intercept every packet right? l believe this is known as "monitor mode"? I'm using a Transformer Prime.
well anyway, l've created my UI, and have root access, installed TCPDUMP and works well through the terminal emulator.
Now to my question, How would I go about implementing TCPDUMP into my application to compute the necessary commands? Once I've created the strings to send, how would I actually send them to TCPDUMP and relay the information across to my app?
I hope this makes sense, once again l'm sorry for my noobness.
Thanks

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[Q] Bluetooth Networking Project

Hello,
I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction for a Bluetooth Networking Project I'd like to do.
The ultimate goal:
- Having some sort of bluetooth app with root privileges, which, when walking past someone, would allow some sort of passive communication without the users authorisation nor involvement.
This is similar to the idea on the 3DS called "SpotPass":
(I would have posted the link, but I'm not allowed to)
I do not have much experience on the subject, but suppose it would involve having root permissions to access the bluetooth module, being able to broadcast a message (to other users of this application).
I'm not sure if this might involve creating a completely different driver.
The reason is actually to create a short-distanced-passive-communication application useful for getting short messages or announcements across, with the low power consumption of bluetooth (vs wifi).
If this kind of communication if not possible, could someone please explain why, or at least give me some sort of link with the reason.
Thanks in advance

[Q] How to ensure that a networking thread gets treated as high priority.

We have a Service with some threads dedicated to network communication. It's heartbeat-type traffic - a quick request-response a couple of times a second with small amounts of data. The problem is that a thread sometimes just stops being run for 20 or more seconds when a network request is made (that's based on calling System.currentTimeMillis() at the start and finish of the network request, and I know from measurements on the server side that the request was completed in a fraction of a second).
The advice out there suggests setting thread priorities using the Android-specific API and/or the pure Java API. It also suggests poking the service into the foreground with notifications, because Android favours foreground processes. I've tried the thread priorities, doesn't work. I'm currently trying the foreground notification trick, I don't know yet if it solves the problem.
Even if any of those techniques happen to work, it stil seems brittle - the kind of thing that could stop working with a hardware change or operating system upgrade. Is there any way of telling Android that a given thread is important enough to get attention a few times a second, and to have it treated as a requirement and not as a suggestion?
This isn't a general release application that needs to be a good citizen and let other apps have their turn: we're running it on a tablet that's dedicated just to running this application, and that we can modify in any way that's required to support the application.
Have you come across this problem before? What do you suggest?
Thanks.

[Q] Beginner's Guide to Android Software Security Testing?

Does anyone know if there is a Guide/CheatSheet for Security Testing Apps on Android?
I am a software tester and whilst I know my way around security testing for the web, I'm looking for a jump start in Security Testing for Android. Just the basics really, things like how to manipulate text fields, cause buffer overruns etc in Apps.
An example case would be an app which we are developing that allows a user to input free text. I want to be able to prove the point that we need to sanitise the user's input here, so ideally, I'd like to know of a string that I can enter, which will cause an undesired effect on the page which displays the user's input.
eg, In a web page, I enter "<IMG SRC=javascript:alert('Sanitise User Input')>" and an alert is fired on displaying that input.
Like I say, I know my way around this type of thing for the web, but I'm not an Android Dev and I don't know how to manipulate the code with my input.
So, Does anyone have any pointers/source of info/ideas?
Thanks Folks,
Noodoo
(Long-time lurker, infrequent poster)

[APP] please recommend substitution of app: network log

Hey guys, I've been seeking an alternate of Network Log (you can find it on Google Play Store) for quite a while but with no luck, so come out to ask if anyone knows one suitable for me .
I have to say Network Log is almost worthy for purchasing (although it is not a paid app), considering the job it's done in categorizing by protocols, by apps, displaying packets by size and time, graphing as a timeline, and that made it an excellent choice for analyzing apps consuming data and draining battery, but unfortunately the app owner doesn't respond to bug summit or emails.
The thing is, Network Log no longer works after Android 6.0, while others in the market relies on system-built-in VPN function to capture data, which is not suitbale for people like me in China using proxies to reach out to world .
So if anyone knows apps that can capture packets (not necessarily able to decrypt contents) and display by apps, just to make it easy to let me see the amounts and frequency Android apps uses the Internet, I‘ll be thankful that you recommend them to me (again it cannot be using Android VPN function since Shadowsocks is already using VPN, so I think the app maybe require root permission but I'm OK)
check...
will somebody know that???

How to find Info/Errs from an Android App Crash to steer toward App's bad Settings?

I'm a long time developer but brand new to Android, with my having past experience developing in Unix systems as well as a lot using Cygwin in Windows. I have a newly-installed App that seems popular called 'C Locker'. So far, I've just got the Free version because I'm trying it out to see if it does what I need. Unfortunately, it's now crashing with the Settings that I've enabled, and as a general developer, I'm interested in seeing if I can glean information from the Bugreport (or whatever else I can use...perhaps even gdb on the device itself?) to help me know what specific Settings might be the problem being that there are so many of them and I would prefer to gain some type of help from my phone in figuring out what the bad settings might be that I've enabled that are causing the problem rather than to spend all day flipping them around. I've already scanned through the Bugreport after uploading it to my computer, examining all of the references it makes in there to "com.ccs.lockscreen" with this apparently being the process name for the C-Locker program. I've seen indications in there where it indeed shows that it has crashed, but I couldn't yet discern if it is able to give me pointers as to what the cause of the crashes might have been. Is that possible to gain such information out of these Bugreport files? Or is there a way to run it directly in gdb on my device to perhaps see the stack at the time that it crashes, for which the names provided might help to discern what specifically it was trying but failing to do at the time? If it helps, as an intended future Android developer, I've already gotten Android SDK set up on my computer, although I haven't yet really used it much to speak of for anything. I also have adb working from my computer to the smartphone and even have rooted it using a rare method being that I have an older phone purchased years ago via Amazon that I didn't activate until about a month ago. (It's an LG G4 VS986 version 13B so I couldn't use the popular rooting method for version 11A but instead had to use the "Injection" method which took me FOREVER although I finally got it to work!) And just in case it helps perhaps even to bypass a direct answer to this question (although it will still of course be appreciated), my Settings within C Locker involve having set it to be a Device Admin and to bring it up as the first App upon Reboot as well as I've selected within the Root category to make it a System App as well as my then having Disabled ALL things that typically show on the screen (such as 9-1-1, camera, Etc). I had left it set to the default "Gesture" Unlock method, but whenever I bring up the App again and go into "Unlock Methods", it now immediately crashes each time (as well as upon Restarting the phone!). So this covers the majority of the most significant of the Settings that I've made on it so far to the best of my recollection. And I feel that if I could get some indications from the system as to what the specific errors may be when its crashing (or from a stack trace or whatever else), then it might help me to discern what specific Settings are creating the problem being that perhaps I just have an odd (rare) combination of Settings on it that I can tweak to get it working. My goal is to ultimately get a lockscreen App that I can use a Pattern type Unlock with that allows an UNLIMITED number of Failed Attempts (so that it won't ever Factory Reset my phone after the 10th or ANY number of failures!!!). I also--as mentioned above--don't want ANY shortcuts whatsoever being accessible BEFORE the phone is unlocked...not even 9-1-1. Anyway, so if there's a way to glean information from the Bugreport (or from whatever other methods available) to find the specific cause (involved errors) of this or any other App that's crashing that I do NOT have the source code for (being that I of course am not its developer) then it will be greatly appreciated to know how to best find this information. (And I promise that I've already searched extensively on Google but couldn't filter out its replies all being based on the idea that I'm the developer of the App that's crashing, with my even trying adding phrases such as "not my app" and "not the developer of" Etc to no avail...lol). Thanks.
By the way, if I shouldn't have combined the 'C Locker' Settings details into this post, then please just let me know because I'm new to posting here. Also, unfortunately, if I don't receive any help with this right away, then I'll be forced to start testing different Setting combinations anyway, which would then of course solve this problem but without knowing truly what exactly was causing the issue. Even if so, it will still be helpful in the long run with other potential App crashes to get the answer to this general question.
Unless not disabled by user, all runtime activities in Android are logged, so app crashes and their reason also. You can view this log by means of Android's logcat command-line tool or by means of a LogCat Viewer app. My POV: logcat is essential for determining what an app and the Android OS are doing while the app is running on a device.
BTW: Android's log can be filtered per package, too.
Thanks!
jwoegerbauer said:
Unless not disabled by user, all runtime activities in Android are logged, so app crashes and their reason also. You can view this log by means of Android's logcat command-line tool or by means of a LogCat Viewer app. My POV: logcat is essential for determining what an app and the Android OS are doing while the app is running on a device.
BTW: Android's log can be filtered per package, too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, and since posting this, I've been learning more about Android Studio and have used it to actually see the stack trace within the "Android Monitor" pane there in order to find the instant reason why the/ANY (meaning 3rd party as well) App is crashing at the time! Thanks again for the help!

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