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Running Android app on a PC

dabigm

ULTIMATE Member
For business reasons I have to have two android apps that are basically 2FA code generators.

These apps are NOT available for anything other than iOS and Android.
This presents a small problem in that my company does not provide me with a phone (They do pay my phone bill but not the device). So If I want to upgrade, I lose / damage my phone then I get locked out of work and I have to submit tickets to an IT dept in another country and that takes time.

I would therefore like to run these apps on a PC that I can backup, access remotely etc.
I think the android version would probably be the easiest to run on PC. I'm just wondering how to go about this.

So far the choices that I have looked at seem to be either

a) A windows PC running bluestacks
b) A VM with Bliss OS installed.

and possibly :
c) Dock droid (android docker thingy I found but haven't looked into much)


What do people think is the best solution here? I like option C) the best because it's light weight, docker, can easily spin up and down etc. But from my very limited look at it, it seems (maybe im wrong) to just spin up bliss OS by running QEmu on the host? so what's the point of it over Bliss OS?

Is anyone else doing anything remotely like this or running android (ARM) apps on a PC?
 
Coming back to answer my own question lol.

I was time limited because the issued QR code from our IT department would stop working soon, so I went with bluestacks. I'm pleased to say that I am now able to use both google auth and my two work auth apps perfectly well within bluestacks.
 
Coming back to answer my own question lol.

I was time limited because the issued QR code from our IT department would stop working soon, so I went with bluestacks. I'm pleased to say that I am now able to use both google auth and my two work auth apps perfectly well within bluestacks.

I'd just use oauthtool instead and avoid any apps and emulations. It can do both totp and hmac codes.

 
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One of the apps is SecurEnvoy authenticator, I'm told (by the manufacturer) that apps do exist on other platforms, however the company you work for has to buy a license to support them. Another app I use is entirely custom built by the company i'm contracted to and they only made an iOS/Android version. Not sure how I could get those to work with that tool.

Bluestacks is working ok for me though thankfully.

My goal here wasn't to separate personal device from work device, but rather to be able to access my OATH stuff from anywhere on any device and to not worry about having it lost/stolen/broken. I'm extremely bloody good at breaking or losing phones.

Asus ROG Phone 6? dropped, smashed, new screen hard to find.
Samsung A52s, left it on the train one drunken evening.

I'd much rather have the OATH stuff at home, remote desktop / VPN to it and do that.
 
Coming back to answer my own question lol.

I was time limited because the issued QR code from our IT department would stop working soon, so I went with bluestacks. I'm pleased to say that I am now able to use both google auth and my two work auth apps perfectly well within bluestacks.
Do you not find Bluestacks painfully s l o w, even on a decent spec PC or Lappy, or have things improved since the last time I tried doing this.
 
Google Authenticator has started to sync tokens to the cloud so you can have a backup there. I don't think you can access them via the web but you just need any device that can run Google Authenticator, login, and they are back.
 
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Do you not find Bluestacks painfully s l o w, even on a decent spec PC or Lappy, or have things improved since the last time I tried doing this.
i upped the cores and memory although to be honest I don't need em, it's just to run a few time-based authenticator apps.
Google Authenticator has started to sync tokens to the cloud so you can have a backup there. I don't think you can access them via the web but you just need any device that can run Google Authenticator, login, and they are back.
yep its a nice feature, I had to previously back them up to my tablet with QR codes. A web based one would be good, but I guess that's the point, to not be on the web.
 
Windows 11 can run Android apps natively. Just use that. You're overthinking it with an emulator app.

The Amazon app store probably won't have the app you need and that's the bundled app store, but you can get the WSATools app from the MS Store and sideload the app you need or another store.
 
Windows 11 can run Android apps natively. Just use that. You're overthinking it with an emulator app.

The Amazon app store probably won't have the app you need and that's the bundled app store, but you can get the WSATools app from the MS Store and sideload the app you need or another store.
Yeah I heard about this but I thought it was only amazon app store apps and only in the USA?
 
while we're at it , anyone know how to clone the state of an app ? These authenticator apps if I install it on another phone/device/whatever .. I have to re-reigster it and input a code and then it stops working. Bluestacks I've managed to just clone the virtual hdd to another PC and can have the same app working perfectly on both machines.

Is there a way to copy the state of the app somehow?
 
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while we're at it , anyone know how to clone the state of an app ? These authenticator apps if I install it on another phone/device/whatever .. I have to re-reigster it and input a code and then it stops working. Bluestacks I've managed to just clone the virtual hdd to another PC and can have the same app working perfectly on both machines.

Is there a way to copy the state of the app somehow?
Most 2FA systems give a WR code to register it on your app. If you take a picture of the QR you are usually able to register it ok multiple devices.
 
Most 2FA systems give a WR code to register it on your app. If you take a picture of the QR you are usually able to register it ok multiple devices.
Yeah, that's what I do, I use andOTP and Google Auth.
 
Most 2FA systems give a WR code to register it on your app. If you take a picture of the QR you are usually able to register it ok multiple devices.
unfortunately this doesn't work. I did take a picture of the QR code. But when I scan that same QR code into my phone after doing it on the emulator, it generates different codes.
 
unfortunately this doesn't work. I did take a picture of the QR code. But when I scan that same QR code into my phone after doing it on the emulator, it generates different codes.
Not seen that before. Are you sure the two devices are not producing the same codes? They could be off by one refresh. Write few numbers for each to see if they overlap or not.
 
Not seen that before. Are you sure the two devices are not producing the same codes? They could be off by one refresh. Write few numbers for each to see if they overlap or not.
Completely different.

Example right now: 167545 on phone 58100 on emulator.
Next set of codes 247944 on phone 488470 on emulator.

I think in order for this to have worked on both devices they would both have to scan the QR code at the exact same time? The codes don't overlap. Hence why I wanted to backup the app state.
 
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Just FYI @TTJJ I tried the native windows 11 method with WSATools and it told me it can't verify the app but I can install it anyway if I want, go ahead and proceeded to install it and it failed. Tried multiple times.

Screenshot 2023-08-31 125447.webp
 
It seems like the APK maybe i
Just FYI @TTJJ I tried the native windows 11 method with WSATools and it told me it can't verify the app but I can install it anyway if I want, go ahead and proceeded to install it and it failed. Tried multiple times.
Maybe it's an issue with the APK. It doesn't even seem to be able to extract the name of the app correctly.
unfortunately this doesn't work. I did take a picture of the QR code. But when I scan that same QR code into my phone after doing it on the emulator, it generates different codes.
This issue is likely caused because the emulator doesn't have the time and date correct. This is critical for the authenticator apps to function.
 
Completely different.

Example right now: 167545 on phone 58100 on emulator.
Next set of codes 247944 on phone 488470 on emulator.

I think in order for this to have worked on both devices they would both have to scan the QR code at the exact same time? The codes don't overlap. Hence why I wanted to backup the app state.
Are you sure the codes are TOTP and not HMAC? Have you actually tried to use the codes?

Also, very good point by @TTJJ, make sure time/date is correct, run NTP or something.
 
Are you sure the codes are TOTP and not HMAC? Have you actually tried to use the codes?

Also, very good point by @TTJJ, make sure time/date is correct, run NTP or something.
date and time are set automatically, however there does appear to be 1 or 2 seconds discrepency between the bluestacks emulator and my phone. I don't see an option to configure NTP from android. But I have to different windows PCs running bluestacks and both produce identical codes (because they are a clone of each other) but on the phone scanning the same QR code again, it's generating different codes.

I'm not sure how i can get it to exactly sync the same time on both phone and emulator.

Re: The type of code issued, i'm not sure. I don't see a way to find out. The app just literally presents the numbers and my userID nothing more. I have tried to use the codes issued. The bluestacks ones work fine. The one from my phone does not.
 
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