The apps mentioned are some of the best Android hacking apps. None of them require your Android phone to be rooted and all are easy to use for beginners. They’re useful to network administrators, penetration testers, and white hat hackers. All are available on Google Play Store and work with the latest Android versions.
Disclaimer: our aim isn’t to show “how to hack your Android phone.” We instead aim to describe what a hacker would see if they gained access to your network. See the FAQs for the legality of penetration testing.
1. Fing
Price: Free / $6.99 per month
Fing is a Google Play app that gives a complete summary of your Wi-Fi network, nearby access points, logged-on devices, hidden cameras, open ports, and router vulnerabilities. Using various tools, you can scan Wi-Fi networks in your vicinity, block intruders, analyze ISP performance, perform ping tests, run a traceroute, and do port scanning.
Pros
- Perfect balance of network analysis and penetration/hacking
- Highly reputed Android hacking app with over 10 million downloads
- Free network analysis features give adequate network visibility
Cons
- Tools such as finding router vulnerabilities and finding hidden cameras are locked away in the Premium version
2. RoboShadow
Price: Free
RoboShadow Network IP Port Scanner is an ethical hacking tool for Android that provides self-penetration tests for free. Its Port Scan feature can scan more than 65000 ports. Through a free device test, you get the IP address, MAC address, and BIOS names of all devices connected to your phone’s Wi-Fi network. All of the data history is saved and exportable for a network audit. If you just started out with self-penetration testing on your phone, give RoboShadow a try.
Pros
- No effort, no learning – absolutely free self-penetration
- Free advanced tools to spot all of the Internet-connected devices, such as Shodan cache, UPNP scan, DNSSD scan
- Attractive, classy user interface
Cons
- While RoboShadow identifies the open ports, it doesn’t provide very deep information related to hacking threats.
3. SnoopSnitch
Price: Free
SnoopSnitch by Security Research Labs goes deep into your phone’s firmware to determine installed and missing Android security patches. You also get a quick graphical summary of which nearby networks are relatively safer from hacker intercepts and impersonations. With an older Qualcomm MSM chip, you get more advanced penetration testing features, such as SMS & SS7 attacks and fake base stations (IMSI attacks.)
Pros
- Decent job of Android patch testing
- Gives summary of all nearby networks (Wi-Fi and mobile data) to help you assess which is the more secure
Cons
- Advanced penetration testing is only supported with Qualcomm MSM chip, available on older smartphones
- Outdated interface
Tip: want access to more knowledge? Check out the best websites Google doesn’t want you to find.
4. Trustd
Price: Free
Trustd Mobile Security (formerly Traced) uses deep learning to scan for potentially malicious apps on your phone. It also keeps track of dangerous Wi-Fi networks and phishing agents, but its main focus is to keep a constant vigil on the apps you put on your device. If it worries you that an unknown app is suddenly gaining access to your phone’s camera, microphone, and other essentials, Trustd will alert you to suspicious activity by spyware, ransomware, and other attackers.
Pros
- Malicious apps alerts on mobile
- Keeps track of each and every event on phone
- No ads and free to use
- Greater user privacy due to lack of location tracking
Cons
- Too much information under the dashboards
- Wi-Fi network scanning feature seems broken at setup stage
5. IoPT
Price: Free
IoPT is a pen test app that describes itself as the Internet of Protected Things. Its objective is to look for vulnerabilities in the small office/home office segment. For this purpose, it provides an awesome toolset: port scanning, host discovery, CCTV camera audits, and Shodan support to understand digital footprints. The app may look simple, but it does provide end-to-end visibility of every minor vulnerability on your network. The best part is it’s all free.
Pros
- Offers visibility of everything from open ports to CCTV vulnerabilities
- Checks accounts for compromise of passwords
- Can correctly identify camera vulnerabilities
Cons
- Clunky user interface
- Anti-hacking data is confusing to understand
6. Network Scanner by Zoltan Pallagi
Price: Free / $1.99 per year
Any hacker that wants to get into your network would be interested to know who is using your Wi-Fi. As a preventive measure, this simple network scanner by Zoltan Pallagi keeps track of all of the vulnerabilities in all nearby networks. The attention to detail for each connected device is elaborate and goes deeply into many information layers. There are a large number of device types that are analyzed: smart bulbs, smart plugs, smart thermostats, etc. This makes this tool a must-have for assessing the weak spots of your smart home.
Pros
- Extremely detailed overview of device vulnerability with real-time ping stats
- Works for custom subnets and router security
Cons
- No easy way to tell authorized users from unauthorized ones, especially when there are multiple devices
- Potential privacy issues
Good to know: want to unlock more features on your phone? Learn how to root your Android with SuperSU.
7. Inware
Price: Free
So far we’ve seen penetration testing tools that detect the vulnerabilities of your entire network and all of the devices contained in it. How about knowing everything about your Android phone? This is where an app called Inware can shed some real knowledge. Whether you want to access info regarding how much RAM you are using, fingerprints and bootloaders of your system, hardware clusters, and frequency, any such data is extremely valuable to forensics experts.
Pros
- Expert forensics level capability in device diagnostics
- Simple to use, easy to read
- Free to use
Cons
- Some inaccuracy in camera specs
8. ARP Guard
Price: Free
ARP Guard (WiFi Security) is a free tool that can detect all emerging threats to the Wi-Fi networks connected to your Android phone. Register all the Wi-Fi access points (APs) you plan to use on your phone, and APR Guard will find any instances of session hijacking, network spoofing, and cookie theft.
Pros
- Extremely-easy-to-understand information
- Bird’s-eye view of attack logs, trusted addresses, and access points
Cons
- The forensics data is not very detailed compared to other apps
9. PortDroid
Price: Free / $3.99
PortDroid is a complete network analysis kit that contains many advanced functions to give you a complete penetration testing environment. From pinging to port scanning, DNS lookup, and reverse IP lookup, the app works smoothly to keep you aware of everything going on in your network. Most of these features are supported in the free version, but the Pro version gets you dark mode and a few more advanced features.
Pros
- Complete self-penetration kit for elaborate network analysis
- Provides reverse IP lookup
- Supports IPv6 addresses
- Offers overview of all devices on network
Cons
- Multi IP port scanning is not free
- May require rooting for advanced features
10. PentestKit Mobile
Price: Free
PentestKit Mobile is a simple aggregator of various anti-hacking and network visibility tools. Using its web crawler, phone number crawler, Google Dork, and Admin finder, you can find out everything about a domain. You can also launch denial of service and SQL injection attacks on a website (for testing!).
Pros
- Sophisticated malware attack vectors to test a website’s defense shield
- Absolutely free of cost
Cons
- Outdated information in some features
- The interface is not very elegant
Wondering if your smartphone is still relevant? Put yours to the test with these benchmarking apps for Android.
11. PreHack’t
Price: Free
PreHack’t is a versatile app that does both security/network analysis and cryptography testing. For the cryptographic objective, it can analyze any text, ciphers (MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, ASCII), hashes, and generate random lists. All the data is exported as reports.
Pros
- A comprehensive tool that does everything from port scanning and tracer routes with a specialization in cryptography
- All features are free
Cons
- Annoying advertisements are frequent
12. PCAPdroid
Price: Free / starting at $4.99
PCAPdroid is a sophisticated solution to detect all app vulnerabilities on your Android phone. We install many apps on our devices without understanding the security implications. PCAPdroid keeps you on top of all data transfers related to app connections. If there is any malware in the payload, you can see it. We’d venture to say that you should never install any apps on your Android without running it through PCAPdroid first.
Pros
- Accurate analysis of all installed and deleted apps on Android
- Traffic dumps give visibility of all network nodes your data passes through at the same time
Cons
- Malware detection and no-root firewall have to be purchased separately
13. Hackuna
Price: Free / $2.99 per month
Hackuna is one of the most full-featured hacking apps for Android. You can try its detailed Wi-Fi scanner or go for the real-time anti-hacking service, which is called “Wi-Fi Police.” This gives you a full list of busted hackers trying to penetrate your network. Moreover, the app provides a network inspector to detect spyware, Trojans, rootkits, and other stealth attacks. Also part of the package is a privacy analyzer that keeps you alerted of dangerous apps on your device.
Pros
- Accurate and useful penetration testing data based on multiple criteria: Wi-Fi scanning, network inspection, malware, and privacy checkups
- Works against the latest Android phone hacking attacks, such as Bettercap, Arpspoof, Ettercap, and Wi-Fi Kill Pro
Cons
- Too many advertisements that can only be removed through a paid premium subscription
14. Hidden Eye – Intruder Selfie
Price: Free / $2.99
Cyber-criminals are often looking for those lucky five minutes when you’re not looking and they can get their hands on your phone. As the last self-penetration test, you should protect your device in case someone tries to access it physically in your absence. This is where Hidden Eye pulls out a truly fast one on the curious hacker. If the intruder tries to break into your device, he should be smiling, as he’s going to leave behind a cute little selfie on your phone’s camera.
Pros
- Ingenious way to grab phone intruders with a selfie
- Triggers include wrong PIN, pattern, password
- Catching snoopers red-handed
Cons
- Uninstalling the app is a pain, as it requires device admin-level permissions.
Tip: if you are new to penetration testing, you can try to familiarize yourself with Kali Linux.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I tell if my Android phone was hacked?
If your Android phone was hacked, you will notice a few symptoms, such as random app installations, difficulty removing apps, high memory usage, system crashes, and Google blocking access to Google Play and other services due to security reasons. However, even if you don’t notice these symptoms, it’s good to use one of the anti-hacking apps for Android covered in this guide.
How can I stop someone from accessing my phone remotely?
If you suspect your phone’s integrity has been compromised and that it is being remotely accessed, the first thing you should do is sign out of your Android accounts. You need to change your main account passwords immediately on another computer or phone. Once you have done this, make a backup of your contacts and perform a factory reset of your phone. After it is over, restore the backup to regain access to your phone’s data.
Is it legal to do penetration testing on Android?
Penetration testing on your own devices is legal, as you have the right to test your device for vulnerabilities. However, if you are doing it on behalf of others, you should get some kind of written consent from them to protect yourself in the event of legal trouble (even if it’s close friends or family.)
Having a recognized Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) degree adds to your credentials as an ethical hacker. Unauthorized hacking attempts without the information or consent of the device owner are definitely illegal and can spell legal problems for you if you get caught. Google itself may prevent you from unauthorized intrusions on your phone as a security measure (even if it’s you doing it), which is why we recommend using the pen test apps found in Google Play Store rather than open APKs.
What are a few good hacking apps on Android outside of Google Play Store?
If you are planning to do penetration testing on a newer Android phone, we do not recommend most apps outside of Google Play Store. They may introduce vulnerabilities that can make your phone prone to crashes and data loss. However, there are a few exceptions. A program called Kali Linux NetHunter works quite well on an Android phone and is very safe to use.
Image credit: Pexels. All screenshots by Sayak Boral.
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