Binder Trace
Binder Trace is a tool for intercepting and parsing Android Binder messages. Think of it as “Wireshark for Binder”.
⚙️ Installation
You’ll need a rooted Android device or emulator.
- (Linux only) – install xclip or xsel for “copy to clipboard” functionality
sudo apt-get install xclipsudo apt-get install xsel - Clone the repo and install python dependencies
pip install -r binder_trace/requirements.txt - Check which version of frida is installed (make sure you’ve pip installed the requirements)
pip list | grep frida - Download the matching version of frida-server from the frida releases page
- Make sure adb is running as root, push frida-server to your device and run it
adb rootadb push frida-server /data/local/tmpchmod u+x /data/local/tmp/frida-serveradb shell /data/local/tmp/frida-server
Arguments
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| -h | Prints the argument help. |
| -d DEVICE | The device to attach to e.g. “emulator-5554”. Use adb devices to list available devices. If not provided defaults to the USB device. |
| -p PID | The pid of the process on DEVICE to attach to. |
| -n NAME | The name of the process on DEVICE to attach to e.g. “Messaging”. |
| -s STRUCTPATH | The path to the directory of structure files. |
▶️ Starting binder trace
To start binder trace we need to pick a device and process to attach to. In the following example we use adb and frida-ps to identify a process to attach to on a local emulator. As it’s an Android 11 emulator we choose the Android 11 structs directory. Pick the struct directory that most closely matches your version of Android. If you would like structures for a different version of Android, please let us know. Once it’s running start using the target app to generate some binder transactions.
> adb devices
List of devices attached
emulator-5554 device
> frida-ps -Ua
PID Name Identifier
---- ------------- ----------------------------
8334 Messaging com.android.messaging
7941 Phone com.android.dialer
9607 Settings com.android.settings
> cd binder_trace
> python -m binder_trace -d emulator-5554 -n Messaging -s ../structs/android11
⌨️ Controls
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
up | Move up |
down | Move down |
shift + up | Page up |
shift + down | Page down |
home | Go to top |
end | Go to bottom |
tab | Next pane |
shift + tab | Previous pane |
ctrl + c | Copy pane to clipboard |
f | Open filter options |
h | Open help |
q | Quit |
🔎 Filtering
If you’re interested in specific messages you can filter the displayed results with the following options.
- Interface – limit results to interfaces that contain the case sensitive search string e.g. “com.android” or “Sms”.
- Method – limit results to function names containing the specified case sensitive string.
- Type – Limit results to certain types of messages e.g. requests or responses.
Once you’ve entered your filter options just press Enter to apply them.
Also Read:
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