Sateesh Verma
2 min readMar 29, 2021

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Android Pentest Tips | Genymotion | ARM Translation

While performing Android pentest using Genymotion, sometime it was observed that we were unable to install the .apk file as Genymotion virtual device support architecture x86.

Genymotion throws an error as mentioned in the screen shot below:

To overcome this problem either use a x86 variant of android application or install an ARM translation tool that matches the Android version of your virtual device. In most of the cases project team don’t provide the x86 varient, so we need to install the ARM translation tool in our genymotion device.

First check the Android version of virtual device. I am using Android 8 API 26

Now search for Android 8 ARM translation tool. Use below mentioned github link to download it

Download the tool as per your virtual device Android version

Once file downloaded, drag it to install in your virtual device.

Click OK to install it. It will take few mins to install and message pops up as shown:

Now navigate to /sdcard/Download folder using adb shell and execute the following commnd

sh /system/bin/flash-archive.sh /sdcard/Download/Genymotion-ARM-Translation.zip

Then reboot the virtual device. Command: adb reboot. All done.

Now install .apk file in your virtual device without any obstacle.

Thanks and will see you in next post.

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