apktool d app.apk This produces a res/ folder with decoded values/strings.xml and a public.xml file.
An is a specialized tool designed to parse, decode, and reconstruct this binary file back into human-readable formats—usually strings.xml and R.xxx definitions. arsc decompiler
Build your own decompiler or resource analyzer. apktool d app
This is done by mapping the package ID (0x7f), type ID (0x03 for string), and entry ID. Modern obfuscators like ProGuard can rename resources (e.g., ic_launcher → a ). The ARSC decompiler still shows the obfuscated name, but the ID mapping remains correct. Dealing with Overlay Packages (Runtime Resource Overlay - RRO) Android 10+ uses overlays to theme apps. Some ARSC decompilers now support splitting overlay packages and merging them with base resources. Part 6: Writing Your Own Minimal ARSC Decompiler in Python Let’s write a toy decompiler to solidify concepts. This is done by mapping the package ID
import struct class ARSCParser: def (self, data): self.data = data self.pos = 0 self.string_pool = []
def parse_string_pool(self): chunk_type = self.read_uint32() # should be 0x0001 chunk_size = self.read_uint32() string_count = self.read_uint32() # Simplified: skip style count, flags, etc. self.pos += 20 offsets = [] for _ in range(string_count): offsets.append(self.read_uint32()) for off in offsets: # Strings are UTF-16, but we'll read until null str_pos = self.pos + off end = str_pos while self.data[end:end+2] != b'\x00\x00': end += 2 raw = self.data[str_pos:end].decode('utf-16le') self.string_pool.append(raw)