Frida vs Smali/Baksmali
Frida
frida.reSmali/Baksmali
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Frida | Smali/Baksmali |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Reverse Engineering Tools | 8.7 (#4) | 7.3 (#39) |
| Integrations | Luma can browse and import scripts from CodeShare and add npm packages through its built-in package manager. | The project is built in Java and provides smali, baksmali, dexlib2, and util as Maven publication projects. |
| Support | Frida’s contact page lists a Telegram group and the #frida IRC channel for contacting the community. | The README directs bug reports, issues, and feature requests to the GitHub issue tracker and mentions the #smali Freenode channel for questions, with no expectation of an instant response. |
Plans
In their own words
Frida
Frida is a dynamic instrumentation toolkit for developers, reverse-engineers, and security researchers. It lets users place scripts in running processes to hook functions, inspect APIs, and trace application code without source code. Documented uses include API tracing, diagnostics, encrypted-protocol analysis, and black-box testing.
Frida supports injected, embedded, and preloaded instrumentation. When injection is unavailable, Frida Gadget can be embedded in a program, including on jailed iOS and Android systems. Supported targets include Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux, iOS, watchOS, tvOS, Android, FreeBSD, and QNX. Language bindings include Node.js, Python, Swift, .NET, Qt/Qml, and Go, alongside a C API. The CLI tools require Python and run on Windows, macOS, or GNU/Linux; the documented installation command is `pip install frida-tools`.
Smali/Baksmali
Smali/Baksmali has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.