rootstacks

The complete BlueStacks Air analysis stack for Apple Silicon macOS.
Root · ADB · Frida · mitmproxy/HTTPS interception · Zygisk/LSPosed · static+dynamic RE
— plus the first public reverse-engineering of BlueStacks' libqvirt/bstpgaipc guest↔host bridge.

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Emulator rooters stop at su; generic Frida wrappers don't know what BlueStacks is. rootstacks is the layer in between — it turns a stock BlueStacks Air install into a fully instrumented Android RE box, and keeps it that way across reboots and updates.

Built on the community rooter (hanreev/root-bluestacks-air, vendored + credited in CREDITS.md); rootstacks adds the analysis, persistence, and internals layers around it.

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/bygelo/rootstacks && cd rootstacks
bin/bs-fetch-assets     # download the 3rd-party binaries (Kitsune/ReZygisk/LSPosed/PCAPdroid)
bin/bs-root             # patch BlueStacks' initrd with Kitsune Magisk (asks for sudo), grant su
bin/bs-doctor           # verify the whole chain end-to-end  → 17/17

That's it — you now have root, a root Frida server, and a system-trusted mitmproxy CA. Sideloading needs no root: hd-adb -s 127.0.0.1:5555 install app.apk.

Requirements: BlueStacks Air ≤ 5.22.130.1019 (later builds add a disk-integrity check), Homebrew, and a Python env with frida. bs-fetch-assets pulls the rest.

Commands

Command	What it does
bs-fetch-assets	Download the 3rd-party binaries (run once after cloning)
bs-root	Patch initrd_hvf.img with Kitsune Magisk, launch (auto-dismiss the upgrade nag), grant ADB su
bs-repatch	Idempotently re-root the initrd if a BlueStacks update reverted it
bs-unroot	Restore the pristine initrd
bs-doctor	End-to-end self-test: adb → root → frida inject → cert → zygisk → tool versions
bs-status	One-look state: arch, root, SELinux, frida, zygisk, modules, proxy, updates
bs-frida up | sync	Run frida-server as root; sync matches the on-device server to your frida client
bs-proxy on | transparent	Route guest traffic → Mac mitmproxy (transparent = iptables for proxy-ignoring apps)
bs-mitm-cert [ca.pem]	Trust a CA in the system store (bind-mount; --module = persist)
bs-objection <pkg>	objection explore over the root frida server
bs-unpin <pkg>	Spawn an app with SSL pinning bypassed (akabe1 script)
bs-bypass <pkg>	Spawn an app with root + emulator detection bypassed (fridantiroot)
bs-hide <pkg>	Magisk denylist enforce + open LSPosed manager
bs-triage <pkg|apk>	Static triage: apkleaks + jadx + apktool manifest + quark
bs-install <apk> / bs-pull <pkg>	Sideload / pull an APK
bs-snapshot save | restore	Snapshot/restore the data disk (compressed)
bs-hcall-trace [proc]	Live-trace the guest↔host hcall channel (read-only RE)

How BlueStacks Air works

• QEMU + Apple Hypervisor.framework (HVF) running native ARM64 Android 13 (API 33, arm64-v8a). No x86 translation. Spoofs a Samsung SM-G998B.
• SELinux is Disabled and ro.debuggable=1 out of the box — ideal for instrumentation.
• ADB listens on 127.0.0.1:5555 (bundled hd-adb). Guest gateway 10.0.2.2 is the Mac.
• Boot chain (in Contents/img/initrd_hvf.img): /boot/init → stage2.sh (runs as real root) → Android /init. stage2.sh is the root-injection point.

Full teardown — the QEMU fork, the bstpgaipc bridge protocol, and the 173-opcode hcall table — is in docs/bluestacks-internals.md.

Why Kitsune, and why the initrd

The bst.feature.rooting conf flag is a dead end (no su, and BlueStacks reverts it). Real root means patching initrd_hvf.img to embed Magisk — and stock Magisk fails here (magisk64 --setup-sbin exits status 1). You need the Kitsune / Magisk Delta fork, whose magisk64 supports that path. bs-fetch-assets pulls the pinned, hash-verified 27.001 build.

Persistence

Survives…	What	How
Reboot (automatic)	root, ADB-su grant, frida-server, mitmproxy CA	Magisk in the initrd + /data Magisk modules (rootstacks-frida, rootstacks-cacert)
BlueStacks update	everything in /data	not the initrd — re-run bs-root (or bs-block-updates on so updates never happen)

A fully-silent auto-reapply daemon is impossible on macOS: App Management blocks background processes from writing inside /Applications/BlueStacks.app even as root. Re-root is one command from a Terminal that holds the grant. Details in Persistence notes.

Recipes

# Intercept HTTPS (CA already trusted system-wide)
bs-proxy on 8080 ; mitmproxy --listen-host 0.0.0.0 -p 8080

# Bypass SSL pinning on a specific app
bs-unpin com.target.app          # or: bs-objection com.target.app → "android sslpinning disable"

# TLS that mitmproxy can't see (native/Flutter)
fritap -m -k keys.log com.target.app

# Static triage / decompile
bs-triage com.target.app ; jadx -d out app.apk ; apkeep -a com.target.app .

Frida versions must match. bs-frida sync fetches the on-device server for your client version.

Installed tooling

Mac-side (Homebrew + the Python env with frida): frida, objection, fritap, frida-dexdump, jnitrace, medusa (vendored), jadx, apktool, apkeep, rizin, apkleaks, quark, mitmproxy. On-device: Kitsune Mask, PCAPdroid, ReZygisk + LSPosed, and the rootstacks-frida / rootstacks-cacert Magisk modules. Frida scripts in assets/frida/.

Docs

• docs/bluestacks-internals.md — the RE map: QEMU/HVF, the bstpgaipc bridge protocol, and the hcall dispatch table.
• docs/hcall-opcodes.tsv — 173 reverse-engineered hcall opcodes.
• docs/https-intercept-proof.md — end-to-end interception evidence.
• docs/avd-comparison.md — rooted arm64 AVD vs. BlueStacks Air.
• ROADMAP.md · CREDITS.md · LICENSE

Reversibility & safety

bs-unroot restores the original initrd (kept locally at assets/initrd_hvf.img.orig + in-bundle .orig-rootstacks). bs-block-updates off re-enables updates. Don't click BlueStacks' "Update" nag (later builds are much harder to root — bs-root auto-dismisses it), and don't launch with open -n.

Legal

For authorized security research and analysis of apps you own or are permitted to test. rootstacks bundles no third-party binaries — bs-fetch-assets pulls them from their upstreams; BlueStacks' proprietary images are never redistributed. See CREDITS.md for attribution and the copyleft notices that vendored components carry.