Use Burp Suite with Genymotion SaaS

2024-05-13

Prerequisites

Burp suite
Android SDK platform-tools (adb)
gmsaas CLI tool

Step 1 – Setting up Burp Suite

In Burp Suite, go to the Proxy tab.

Click on Proxy Settings.

Here, Burp Suite listens on port 8080 from all interfaces.

Click import/export CA certificate.

Export.

Certificate in DER format.

Choose a path and name it anything with a .der extension.

We will use the name Burp_cert.der as an example for this tutorial.

Step 2 – Upload and install the Burp Suite Certificate

as user certificate

as system (root) certificate

Launch an instance.

Drag’n drop the Burp_cert.der file you generated to the device display, or use the File upload widget.

Go to Android Settings and 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 23.0 and a third party plugin.

1. Root the device Android 14 and above images are not rooted by default, so make sure that the device is rooted before going any further. Please refer to Genymotion SaaS 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.

Android 12-13

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 SaaS 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      # Convert DER certificate to PEM
openssl x509 -inform PEM -subject_hash_old -in Burp_cert.pem | head -1  # Display subject_hash_old

Then, rename the file with the output hash from the last command. For example, if the hash is 9a5ba575, then rename the file as 9a5ba575.0:

mv Burp_cert.pem 9a5ba575.0

3. Install the certificate You will need ADB and gmsaas CLI to proceed. Please refer to gmsaas CLI online documentation for more information. We need to make the /system partition writeable and push the certificate to the /system/etc/security/cacerts folder:

adb root
adb shell 'mount -o rw,remount /'
adb push <cert>.0 /system/etc/security/cacerts/
adb shell chmod 644 /system/etc/security/cacerts/<cert>.0

For example, with the 9a5ba575.0 certificate:

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 the device has rebooted, Settings -> Security -> Trusted Credentials should show the new “Portswigger CA” as a system trusted CA.

Step 3 – Save as a Custom Recipe

We recommend saving the device as a custom recipe at this point.

Step 4 – Set Android global proxy to Burp Suite proxy

Important

If the global proxy is still set after saving the device as a custom recipe, or if you save the recipe at this point, Wifi will be unavailable the next time a device is started from this recipe. To avoid this, make sure to unset the global proxy before saving. See Step 5 – Disable global proxy section.

If you haven’t already done it, connect the device to ADB with gmsaas. Next, use ADB to set port 3333 but you can use any other port as long as it is available:

adb shell settings put global http_proxy localhost:3333

Finally, bind Burp proxy to the device proxy configuration with adb reverse. We setup Burp suite to use port 8080, so we will bind the device proxy to this port:

adb reverse tcp:3333 tcp:8080

From there, your instance network should be intercepted by Burp suite.

Step 5 – Disable global proxy

If you need to save the instance, make sure to disable the global proxy before or the Internet connection may be disabled the next time you start it:

adb shell settings put global http_proxy :0