MASTG-TECH-0033: Method Tracing

In contrast to method profiling, which tells you how frequently a method is being called, method tracing helps you to also determine its input and output values. This technique can prove to be very useful when dealing with applications that have a big codebase and/or are obfuscated.

If you prefer a GUI-based approach you can use tools such as RMS Runtime Mobile Security which enables a more visual experience as well as include several convenience tracing options ↗.

If you prefer the command line, Frida offers a useful syntax to query Java classes and methods as well as Java method tracing support for frida-trace via -j (starting on frida-tools 8.0, Frida 12.10).

• In Frida scripts: e.g. Java.enumerateMethods('*youtube*!on*') uses globs to take all classes that include "youtube" as part of their name and enumerate all methods starting with "on".
• In frida-trace: e.g. -j '*!*certificate*/isu' triggers a case-insensitive query (i), including method signatures (s) and excluding system classes (u).

Refer to the Release Notes for Frida 12.10 ↗ for more details on this new feature. To learn more about all options for advanced usage, check the documentation on the official Frida website ↗.