CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androideventsinject
Habeeb Ahmed
Habeeb Ahmed

Reputation: 217

Inject events in Android without root

I've been trying to figure out how to inject touch/ keyboard events into an Android device for a while now (within and outside of you application).

I found an app that does this without root permissions:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vmlite.vncserver

Does anyone have any clue how they did it?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 5983

Answers (2)

uelordi
uelordi

Reputation: 2209

If you want to inject touch events on android app without root:

you can use Instrumentation class, https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Instrumentation.html

import android.app.Instrumentation;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {
Instrumentation m_Instrumentation;
  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    m_Instrumentation = new Instrumentation();

    int x=0; //your x coord in screen. 
    int y=0; // your y coord in screen. 
    m_Instrumentation.sendPointerSync(MotionEvent.obtain(SystemClock.uptimeMillis(),
                    SystemClock.uptimeMillis(),MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN,x, y,0));
            m_Instrumentation.sendPointerSync(MotionEvent.obtain(SystemClock.uptimeMillis(),
                    SystemClock.uptimeMillis(),MotionEvent.ACTION_UP,x, y,0));
}
}

This method obtains ACTION_DOWN and ACTION_UP event which injects an event on the current layout.

Note: if the injection of your coordinates (x,y) is outside of screen size, the app will crash. This method injection works only inside app, if you want to inject touch events, you need a rooted device and inject events through adb command.

Upvotes: 3

Tamás Szelei
Tamás Szelei

Reputation: 23961

for non-rooted devices, every time after turning the device completely off and on, you will have to connect your device to a Windows PC or Mac using a USB cable, then run a free desktop program, VMLite Android App Controller, to start the server on your device.

I'm quite sure that at this step it changes the permissions on /dev/input/event.. files and performs the injecting by writing those (sidestepping the Android VM). This technique is detailed in this blog post: Part1, Part2

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions