Proj 4x: BlueStacks Android Emulator (15 pts)

What You Need for This Project

A Windows or Mac computer
A Kali virtual machine

Purpose

To get BlueStacks working, a game-oriented Android emulator.

It runs fast and well on Windows.

Task 1: Installing Bluestacks

Downloading and Installing BlueStacks

In a Web browser, go here:

http://www.bluestacks.com/

Download and install it, as shown below.

You'll need to provide a Google login.

When it's done, you'll see the BlueStacks home page, as shown below. (You won't have the Bank of America app installed yet.)

Turning on USB Debugging

In BlueStacks, at the top right, click the Gear, Settings, Preferences, and enable "USB Debugging".

Turning Off Windows Firewall

On your Windows machine, in Control Panel, open the Firewall utility and turn off the Firewall.

Task 2: Port Fowarding

This task is different on Windows and Mac/Linux hosts. Follow the proper instructions below.

Mac OS or Linux

Observing the Listening Port
On your host computer, execute this command:
netstat -an | grep 5555
You should see a LISTENING port on the loopback address, as shown below.

Installing Socat
We need to forward that port to the Kali virtual machine with Socat.
On a Mac OS machine, execute these commands to install Homebrew and Socat:
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" brew install socat
On Ubuntu Linux, execute these commands instead:
sudo apt update sudo apt install socat
Port Forwarding with Socat
Execute this command:
socat tcp-listen:5556,reuseaddr,fork tcp:localhost:5555
The terminal freezes, waiting for traffic, as shown below.
Leave this terminal window open.

Windows

Observing the Listening Port
On your host computer, in a Command Prompt, execute this command:
netstat -an | findstr "5555"
You should see a LISTENING port on the loopback address, as shown below.
Port Forwarding
We need to forward that port to the Kali virtual machine with Socat. Execute this command:
netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenport=5556 listenaddress=0.0.0.0 connectport=5555 connectaddress=127.0.0.1
To see that it's working, execute this command:
netstat -an | findstr "5556"
You should see a LISTENING port on the arbitrary address "0.0.0.0", as shown below.

Connecting with ADB

Finding the Host's Address

On your Kali virtual machine, execute this command:

ip addr

Find the IP address of the interface that goes to the host, which is usually "eth0", as highlighted in the image below.

On the host computer, execute ifconfig or ipconfig and find the interface address that's on the same subnet as the Kali machine.

On my host, it was 172.16.123.1, as shown below.

Connecting to the Bluestacks Emulator

On your Kali virtual machine, execute these commands, replacing the IP address with the correct address of your host system:

apt update apt install android-tools-adb -y adb connect 172.16.123.1:5556 adb devices -l

You see a kltexx device attached, as shown below.

Saving a Screen Image

Make sure you can see the kltexx device, as shown above.

Save a full-desktop image. On a Mac, press Commmand+3. On a PC, press Shift+PrntScrn and paste into Paint.

YOU MUST SUBMIT A FULL-SCREEN IMAGE FOR FULL CREDIT!

Save the image with the filename "YOUR NAME Proj 4x", replacing "YOUR NAME" with your real name.

Turning in your Project

Email the images to to cnit.128sam@gmail.com with the subject line: Proj 4x from YOUR NAME

Updated 2-4-19