Manifest not reencoding (corrupt XML binary file?) causing error signing/installing

Information

1. Apktool Version (apktool -version) - 2.4.1
2. Operating System (Mac, Linux, Windows) - macOS
3. APK From? (Playstore, ROM, Other) - Other

Stacktrace/Logcat

Decoding with -rs --force-manifest

I: Using Apktool 2.4.1 on 67f32da161bc63a8ac5a07c1df819e63.apk
I: Copying raw resources...
I: Loading resource table...
I: Decoding AndroidManifest.xml with resources...
I: Loading resource table from file: /Users/aptmas/Library/apktool/framework/1.apk
I: Regular manifest package...
I: Copying raw classes.dex file...
I: Copying raw classes3.dex file...
I: Copying raw classes5.dex file...
I: Copying raw classes6.dex file...
I: Copying raw classes4.dex file...
I: Copying raw classes2.dex file...
I: Copying assets and libs...
I: Copying unknown files...
I: Copying original files...

Encoding without flags

I: Using Apktool 2.4.1
I: Copying 67f32da161bc63a8ac5a07c1df819e63 classes.dex file...
I: Copying 67f32da161bc63a8ac5a07c1df819e63 classes3.dex file...
I: Copying 67f32da161bc63a8ac5a07c1df819e63 classes2.dex file...
I: Copying 67f32da161bc63a8ac5a07c1df819e63 classes6.dex file...
I: Copying 67f32da161bc63a8ac5a07c1df819e63 classes5.dex file...
I: Copying 67f32da161bc63a8ac5a07c1df819e63 classes4.dex file...
I: Checking whether resources has changed...
I: Copying raw resources...
I: Copying libs... (/lib)
I: Building apk file...
I: Copying unknown files/dir...
I: Built apk...

ApkSigner

Exception in thread "main" com.android.apksig.apk.MinSdkVersionException: Failed to determine APK's minimum supported platform version. Use --min-sdk-version to override
	at com.android.apksigner.ApkSignerTool.sign(ApkSignerTool.java:372)
	at com.android.apksigner.ApkSignerTool.sign(ApkSignerTool.java:123)
	at com.android.apksigner.ApkSignerTool.main(ApkSignerTool.java:84)
Caused by: com.android.apksig.apk.MinSdkVersionException: Unable to determine APK's minimum supported Android platform version: malformed binary resource: AndroidManifest.xml
	at com.android.apksig.apk.ApkUtils.getMinSdkVersionFromBinaryAndroidManifest(ApkUtils.java:384)
	at com.android.apksig.ApkSigner.getMinSdkVersionFromApk(ApkSigner.java:857)
	at com.android.apksig.ApkSigner.sign(ApkSigner.java:260)
	at com.android.apksig.ApkSigner.sign(ApkSigner.java:193)
	at com.android.apksigner.ApkSignerTool.sign(ApkSignerTool.java:366)
	... 2 more
Caused by: com.android.apksig.internal.apk.AndroidBinXmlParser$XmlParserException: No XML chunk in file
	at com.android.apksig.internal.apk.AndroidBinXmlParser.<init>(AndroidBinXmlParser.java:101)
	at com.android.apksig.apk.ApkUtils.getMinSdkVersionFromBinaryAndroidManifest(ApkUtils.java:345)
	... 6 more

Installation

INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_UNEXPECTED_EXCEPTION: Failed to parse /data/app/vmdl1094509404.tmp/base.apk: Corrupt XML binary file

Steps to Reproduce

1. Use apktool to decode APK with -rs --force-manifest (no error) - log above
2. Use apktool to encode APK without any changes (no error) - log above
3. Try to sign/install APK and get the errors above

I have also tried to do it without flags but while it decodes correctly, when it’s building it’ll show errors related to “No resource identifier found for attribute” eventually failing for:

brut.androlib.AndrolibException: brut.common.BrutException: could not exec (exit code = 1): [/var/folders/nf/t6_29zc50pb_lw5ww_p74rym0000gp/T/brut_util_Jar_6758575029498112036.tmp, p, --forced-package-id, 127, --min-sdk-version, 19, --target-sdk-version, 28, --version-code, 4226, --version-name, 1.9.13c, --no-version-vectors, -F, /var/folders/nf/t6_29zc50pb_lw5ww_p74rym0000gp/T/APKTOOL6277513217225256484.tmp, -e, /var/folders/nf/t6_29zc50pb_lw5ww_p74rym0000gp/T/APKTOOL7421589631204875490.tmp, -0, arsc, -I, /Users/x/Library/apktool/framework/1.apk, -S, /Users/x/Desktop/!/apktools/67f32da161bc63a8ac5a07c1df819e63/res, -M, /Users/x/Desktop/!/apktools/67f32da161bc63a8ac5a07c1df819e63/AndroidManifest.xml]

By looking inside the APK I have noticed the AndroidManifest.xml isn’t getting reencoded even if it builds successfully, so perhaps this is why the apksigner complains about malformed XML?

[natelastname]

Not sure. I added support for API 29 (Q) and API 30 ® and API 31 (S) which are used as those codename values which I imagine ApkSigner cannot handle.

This was a recent change that happened around version M, because it crashed Apktool as well until we wrote code to automatically remap those (ie Q -> 29). That has not been happening with anything after Q as we haven’t had an update in almost a year.

If this commit doesn’t solve it - 3101a05, then its a bug in ApkSigner and thus not Apktool.

I tried building the repo and reproducing this bug running apktool from the jar file. Unfortunately, it was not fixed.

My understanding of the problem is that the AndroidManifest.xml is not converted back to AXML by apktool when building after a decompile with --force-manifest. This can be confirmed by unzipping the corrupted APK and checking AndroidManifest.xml.

Does that change your opinion about this issue? Thank you and sorry if I’m misunderstanding the scope of apktool.

[fgroupindonesia]

omg… i was experiencing the same problems…