Virtualization technology is currently a hot technology in black and gray production. Using a virtualized environment allows Heihui to take advantage of the fact that the virtual environment is at a lower level of the application operating environment, and modify the App without anyone noticing, thereby avoiding investment in analyzing and cracking the App.
The multi-opening tools for Android virtualization represented by VirtualApp earlier ignited new application fields. In recent years, virtualization technology based on ARM servers has also become mature and popular.
The difference between virtual machine and virtualization
Virtualization technology is widely used in the containerization of services. The architecture diagram of virtual machine and virtualization is as follows:
traditional virtual machine
virtualized container
Comparing virtual machines and virtualization
To put it simply, each virtualized container is equivalent to a sandbox, and the containers do not interfere with each other; the virtualized container is used as an application-level abstraction (process level), while the virtual machine is used as an operating system level.
Well-known virtualization applications are containerization technologies such as Docker. Docker uses a technology similar to LXC (Linux Container) to implement, and LXC technology can also be used to virtualize the operating environment of Android applications on Linux systems.
What is LXC
LXC is the userspace interface to the Linux kernel container features. With a powerful API and simple tools, it allows Linux users to easily create and manage system or application containers.
LXC has the following characteristics for its processes:
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kernel space
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Apparmor and SELinux configuration
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Seccomp security mechanism
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Chroots (using pivot_root)
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Possess kernel state related capabilities
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CGroups (Control Groups)
That is to say, the virtualization environment can modify the running environment of the application in the container at a lower level.
Run Android apps on Linux with LXC
Using LXC virtualization to run Android 7.1.1 system
Through LXC, we can open the Android app in the form of a window, and multiple virtual systems can share some underlying resources, which is more efficient.
However, the LXC-based virtual environment processes different instruction architectures, which will cause performance consumption of instruction translation. In other words, if an X86-based Linux system runs an ARM-based Android App, the performance will be discounted accordingly. What about a Linux server running on ARM? If not, the performance loss in the translation link can be further saved. So there is the title of this article - cloud mobile phone, which has been widely used in ARM cloud simulator before.
Evolution and status quo of large-scale black production technology
First Generation: Simulator-Based Scale-Up Systems
The second generation: scale-up system based on real machine
The third generation: large-scale system based on development board
The fourth generation: scale-up system based on ARM server virtualization
Comparison of scaling technologies
We can intuitively see that the large-scale technology of black and gray production is constantly improving and iterating to meet higher demands. Therefore, it is very important to track the evolution of black and gray production technology.
Current status of cloud phones
For public cloud service providers, account managers generally only open ROM customization when the purchase volume is large enough. Most do not offer ROM customization.
Application case of black and gray production
A short video crawler based on LXC
epilogue
ARM-based virtualization technology has gradually shown its skills in various fields, especially in the field of black and gray production. This article organizes and summarizes the current black and gray production activities on Android based on ARM server virtualization technology, and briefly introduces the implementation principles of related technologies. Black and gray production technology is also rapidly iterating, and good risk control requires continuous tracking of black and gray production trends.
Of course, the large-scale technology of virtualization based on ARM server is only a corner of the application of virtualization technology in Android. The multi-open application we are familiar with is also an application of virtualization technology, and we will share it with you when we have the opportunity in the future.
JiExperiment™ products can effectively and systematically organize risk identification capabilities, track black and gray production trends, and help enterprises grow safely.