Use Burp Suite with Genymotion Desktop

2024-05-07

Prerequisites

Burp Suite
openssl (optional)

Step 1 – Setting up Burp Suite

In Burp Suite, go to the Proxy tab.
Click on Proxy Settings.
Listen to port 8080 from all interfaces.
Click import/export CA certificate.
Export the certificate in DER format.
Choose a path and name it anything with a .der extension.
Click Next.
Burp_cert.der is used as an example name for this tutorial.

Step 2 – Upload and install the Burp Suite Certificate

as user certificate

Start your device.
Drag’n drop the Burp_cert.der file you generated to the device display.
Go to Android Settings and search install a certificate.
In the results, click Install certificates from SD Card and select CA certificate.
Click install anyway to bypass the warning.
Navigate to /sdcard/Download and click on Burp_cert.der.
If you are using Android 9 or below, you may be requested to set a secure lock screen. Comply and set a lock.
To verify whether the certificate is properly installed, go to Android settings, and click Trusted credentials.
You should see the certificate in the USER tab.
This method alters the Android system significantly and may break the device. Use with extreme care and only if necessary.

Android 14+

Android 12-13

Android 11 and below

Installing System certificates on Android 14+ requires Magisk and a third party plugin.

1. Root the device

Android 14 is not rooted by default, so make sure that the device is rooted before going any further. Please refer to Genymotion Desktop on-line documentation for more details.

2. Install Magisk

Follow the instructions from our FAQ to install Magisk: How to install Magisk on Genymotion?

3. Install the certificate as user certificate

Follow the instructions from the tab “as user certificate”

4. Install the Cert-Fix plugin for Magisk

Download Cert-Fixer.zip from Cert-Fixer github repository.
Upload the file to the device. You can either use adb push Cert-Fixer.zip /sdcard/Download or simply drag’n drop the file to the device display.
Open Magisk and go to the Plugins section.
Click “Install from storage” and select Cert-Fixed.zip from the Download folder (/sdcard/Download)
Wait for the plugin to install. When done, click “Reboot” to reboot the device.
After a reboot, the Burp Suite CA certificate (“PortSwigger CA”) should now be installed as a system certificate.
Warning: The Cert-Fix plugin will copy any user certificate as system certificate on boot. If you don’t need to install any other system certificates, make sure to disable the plugin to avoid installing system certificates by mistake.

1. Root the device

Android 12-13 images are not rooted by default, so make sure that the device is rooted before going any further. Please refer to Genymotion Desktop on-line documentation for more details.

2. Convert the certificate

We need to convert the Burp certificate into PEM format. Use openssl to convert DER to PEM, then output the subject_hash_old:
openssl x509 -inform DER -in Burp_cert.der -out Burp_cert.pem
openssl x509 -inform PEM -subject_hash_old -in Burp_cert.pem | head -1
Display the subject_hash_old
Then, rename the file with the output hash from the last command. For example, if the hash is 9a5ba575, rename the file as 9a5ba575.0.
mv Burp_cert.pem 9a5ba575.0

3. Install the certificate

First, make the /system partition writable:
adb root
adb shell 'mount -o rw,remount /'
adb push 9a5ba575.0 /system/etc/security/cacerts/
adb shell chmod 644 /system/etc/security/cacerts/9a5ba575.0
Reboot the device.
After reboot, Settings -> Security -> Trusted Credentials should show the new “Portswigger CA” as a system trusted CA.

Step 3 – Set Android global proxy to Burp Suite proxy

Note: It is possible to use Android settings, but using ADB is more reliable and easier to handle.
Note: If you do not have or wish to install Android SDK tools, you can use Genymotion ADB built-in tool.
To set the global proxy, run:
adb shell settings put global http_proxy <burp_proxy_ip>:<burp_listening_port>
Example: Burp Suite runs on a host with IP 192.168.1.84 and listens on port 8080.
adb shell settings put global http_proxy 192.168.1.84:8080
From then, Internet traffic should be redirected to Burp Suite.
Note: Applications may have their own proxy settings which cannot be controlled this way. The only solution in this case is to use a third party Android application, such as ProxyDroid, to redirect all traffic from the device to Burp Suite proxy.
Disable global proxy
adb shell settings put global http_proxy :0

Extras

Genymotion Desktop and Burp Suite run on the same host
With VirtualBox (Windows)
IP 10.0.3.2 from the virtual device to reach Burp Suite:10.0.3.2:8080
With QEMU (Linux/Mac)
Use adb reverse to bind a virtual device local port to a host local port
Set Android global proxy to localhost:3333
adb shell settings put global http_proxy localhost:3333
adb reverse tcp:3333 tcp:8080
Script with gmtool to automate the process
The following scripts require gmtool advanced commands which are only available with a paid license.
You can use scripts to combine gmtool and adb to automatically set the proxy and start a device, and unset the proxy while stopping the device. See examples below.

Start script example

#!/bin/bash
## Start your device with gmtool.
## We assume Genymotion is installed in your Home folder.
$home/genymotion/gmtool admin start "your_device_name"
## Set Burp Suite proxy as global proxy to the device.
## We use proxy IP 10.0.3.2 and port 8080. Replace with your own settings.
## We use Genymotion built-in ADB.
$home/genymotion/tools/adb shell settings put global http_proxy 10.0.3.2:8080

Batch script (Windows):

@echo off
REM Start your device with gmtool.
REM We assume Genymotion is installed in "C:\Program Files".
C:\Program Files\Genymobile\Genymotion\gmtool.exe admin start "your_device_name"
REM Set Burp Suite proxy.
REM We use proxy IP 10.0.3.2 and port 8080. Replace with your own settings.
REM We use Genymotion built-in ADB
C:\Program Files\Genymobile\Genymotion\tools\adb shell settings put global http_proxy 10.0.3.2:8080

Stop script example

#!/bin/bash
## Remove the global proxy settings.
$home/genymotion/tools/adb shell settings put global http_proxy :0
## Stop the running device.
$home/genymotion/gmtool admin stop "your_device_name"