Preface
Nowadays, android virtualization technology has become very popular. There have been a ton of online articles about the principles of virtualization. This article compares the differences between virtualization products from the perspective of real testing.
Terminology
| Abbr. | Full Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Host | Host | The original application, i.e. the application itself |
| Sub Applications | Sub Applications | The application being run |
| PMS | PackageManagerService | Package management services in Android |
| AMS | ActivityManagerService | Activity management services in Android |
| NMS | NotificationManagerService | Notification management service in Android |
How Virtualization Works？
There have been many similar articles on this issue online, here are a few to read
- https://juejin.cn/post/6964673582924300296
- https://blog.csdn.net/ganyao939543405/article/details/76146760
- https://juejin.cn/post/7028124957141893150
Through the principle analysis, we can see that to achieve virtualization of an application, the most important thing is: when running sub-applications, deceive the system thereby making the system mistakenly believe that the application currently being run is the host application , otherwise the system will not hesitate to kill it!
Entry points for testing
I plan to test the following key aspects of virtualization in order to compare the strengths and weaknesses of each framework.
The products involved in the comparison are:
| Name | WebSite |
|---|---|
| VirtualApp | https://github.com/asLody/VirtualApp/blob/master/README_eng.md |
| LBE | http://parallelspace-app.com/index_cn.php |
| SpaceCore | https://spacecore.dev/ |
| 360 FenShenDaShi | http://fenshen.360.cn |
| ShuangKaiZhuShou | https://www.multiopen.cn/ |
Items for comparison:
| Method | Expected Value |
|---|---|
| Context#mBasePackageName | Package name of the application |
| Context#mOpPackageName | Package name of the application |
| ActivityThread.H#mCallback | null |
| ActivityThread#mInstrumentation | android.app.Instrumentation |
| PMS testing | android.os.BinderProxy@xxxx |
Package name of the sub-application for testing：com.virtualchecker
Testing
ReadValue: Context#mBasePackageName
| Product | Expected Value | Actual Value |
|---|---|---|
| Android System | com.virtualchecker | com.virtualchecker |
| VirtualApp | com.virtualchecker | ❌ io.busniess.va |
| LBE | com.virtualchecker | ❌ com.lbe.parallel.intl.arm64 |
| SpaceCore | com.virtualchecker | ✅ com.virtualchecker |
| 360 FenShenDaShi | com.virtualchecker | ✅ com.virtualchecker |
| ShuangKaiZhuShou | com.virtualchecker | ❌ com.exceliance.dualaid |
ReadValue: Context#mOpPackageName
| Product | Expected Value | Actual Value |
|---|---|---|
| Android System | com.virtualchecker | com.virtualchecker |
| VirtualApp | com.virtualchecker | ❌ io.busniess.va |
| LBE | com.virtualchecker | ❌ com.lbe.parallel.intl.arm64 |
| SpaceCore | com.virtualchecker | ✅ com.virtualchecker |
| 360 FenShenDaShi | com.virtualchecker | ✅ com.virtualchecker |
| ShuangKaiZhuShou | com.virtualchecker | ❌ com.exceliance.dualaid |
ReadValue: ActivityThread#mInstrumentation
| Product | Expected Value | Actual Value |
|---|---|---|
| Android System | android.app.Instrumentation@ | android.app.Instrumentation@bfcc1e8 |
| VirtualApp | android.app.Instrumentation@ | ❌ com.lody.virtual.client.h.a.c@fd146bf |
| LBE | android.app.Instrumentation@ | ❌ com.doubleagent.client.e@a0aac44 |
| SpaceCore | android.app.Instrumentation@ | ✅ android.app.Instrumentation@153bfc9 |
| 360 FenShenDaShi | android.app.Instrumentation@ | ❌ com.morgoo.droidplugin.hook.handle.PluginInstrumentation@8e8d100 |
| ShuangKaiZhuShou | android.app.Instrumentation@ | ❌ com.exceliance.kxqp.platform.c.b.e.wy@38e16ce |
ReadValue: ActivityThread.H#mCallback
| Product | Expected Value | Actual Value |
|---|---|---|
| Android System | null | null |
| VirtualApp | null | ❌ com.lody.virtual.client.h.d.d.b@800e4de |
| LBE | null | ❌ com.lbe.doubleagent.client.LocalActivityService$ActivityThreadCallback@3f40957 |
| SpaceCore | null | ❌ com.fvbox.lib.client.hook.HCallbackHook@aa9ba7e |
| 360 FenShenDaShi | null | ❌ com.morgoo.droidplugin.hook.handle.e@91b7b06 |
| ShuangKaiZhuShou | null | ❌ com.excelliance.kxqp.platform.c.b.e.wr@153bfc9 |
PMS Testing
| Product | Expected Value | Actual Value |
|---|---|---|
| Android System | android.os.BinderProxy@ | android.os.BinderProxy@eff05b8 |
| VirtualApp | android.os.BinderProxy@ | ❌ com.lody.virtual.client.h.a.c@993b1e1 |
| LBE | android.os.BinderProxy@ | ❌ com.lbe.doubleagent.client.hook.BinderProxy@f54e1fe |
| SpaceCore | android.os.BinderProxy@ | ✅ android.os.BinderProxy@c846443 |
| 360 FenShenDaShi | android.os.BinderProxy@ | ❌ com.morgoo.droidplugin.hook.newsolution.BinderHook$BinderWrapper@cf8d1da |
| ShuangKaiZhuShou | android.os.BinderProxy@ | ✅ android.os.BinderProxy@eff05b8 |
Testing Result
| Product | mBasePackageName | mOpPackageName | mInstrumentation | PMS | H#mCallback |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VirtualApp | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| LBE | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| SpaceCore | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| 360 FenShenDaShi | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| ShuangKaiZhuShou | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
Conclusion
The test above shows that SpaceCore's invasion of the application is more conservative, reflecting sideways that the internal processing logic is better, but the specific implementation details are unknown.
Keywords：Android Virtualization, App Clone, VirtualApp, LBE, SpaceCore, 360 DroidPlugin, VMOS, Android Sandbox
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