• Welcome Guest to the new PlayerSquared! Please be aware the site is a work in progress & we'd appreciate your help in letting us know which features from the old site we're currently missing as well as report any bugs you find via this thread here: Bugs/Missing Features
  • If this is your first visit You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. Sign up today to get the latest PS4 GameSaves, Game Mods and much more!

Introduction of (Smali Language) Android

SyrenRemix

Reverse Engineer
Staff
October 25, 2020
400
2,876
93
3,013
Introduction to Smali Code

Smali code is a machine-level code that represents Java code. It is similar to assembly code for Java and shares many similarities with it. Smali is used mainly for virtual machines and is more complex than Java because it is meant to communicate with machines rather than humans. To understand Smali code, it is necessary to have at least a basic understanding of Java. Smali code is essentially a representation of Java code at the machine level.

Smali code is decomposed into multiple sentences, and each sentence corresponds to a sentence of Java code. For example, the "Hello World" program in Java is a simple one-liner code that is represented in Smali as a few more complex sentences. Smali files have a specific format, and each file should include only one class. The format consists of modifiers such as public, private, protected, static, and final, as well as the class interface and enum to indicate that this class is an interface or enumeration class.

In Smali, the type of data is represented in a specific way. Basic types such as byte, char, short, int, long, float, double, boolean, and void are represented as B, C, S, I, J, F, D, Z, and V, respectively. Reference types are represented as LpackageName/class_name/typeName, and an array is indicated by adding [ in front of the type. For example, [I represents int [] (a single array of integers), and [Ljava/lang/String; represents String [] (a single array of strings).

Methods are defined in Smali using a specific syntax, and each method can have input parameters and an output. A method is broken into smaller blocks to make the code easier to follow and can be used multiple times. To call a method in Smali, the name, class name, method name, and parameter type should be specified. Methods are the most crucial part of modding, and a particular focus should be placed on the input and output types.

In summary, Smali code is a machine-level code that represents Java code. It is a low-level language used mainly for virtual machines and is more complex than Java because it is meant to communicate with machines rather than humans. Understanding Smali requires knowledge of Java, and the data type, class format, and method syntax in Smali are specific and different from those in Java.
 
Last edited:
Very good. Congratulations for the tutorial. To be continued?

Hi thanks for the message, I won't be continuing the Smali tutorials moving forward I have left many tutorials and tools for users to start Reverse Engineering Applications. Before you visit the thread to download the tools. I'd also advise you the read this thread as you will always fall into this regardless as once you modify a application the signature is normally changed.
 
Last edited: