Can't run Drozer commands unless the app is in focus

[logosred]

Hello, I'm running into an issue with Drozer.

2025-05-31.18-07-41.mp4

If the Drozer agent app isn't in focus on the device, most of the commands I run from the Drozer console (like starting activities) don't do anything, no errors, just nothing happens.

But if I bring the Drozer app to the foreground first (i.e., open it manually and leave it on screen), then the same commands work fine.

I tested the same actions using ADB, and ADB can launch those activities even when Drozer is in the background. I recorded a video showing this side-by-side and will attach it here.

Is this expected behavior due to Android background execution restrictions? Is there a recommended workaround for this (maybe running a foreground service or something similar)?

Thank you.

[cyberMilosz]

[tl;dr: expected behaviour but agreed non-ideal, foreground service is a good workaround]

You're completely right. This is expected behaviour as of Android 10+ (https://developer.android.com/guide/components/activities/background-starts) and could be worked around by modifying drozer-agent to run a foreground service and possibly granting the SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW. I've tried something similar a few years back and it worked quite well, so that's the "easy" workaround.

For context, there's a little bit of a debate as to what the correct behaviour should be:

• Letting drozer operate as a fairly "vanilla" app means you can evaluate your device/other apps from the perspective of something that could easily make its way onto an app store, and needing "unusual" permissions is sometimes grounds for dismissing vulnerabilities as "invalid". But, just like a "normal" app, that means that the agent needs to be in the foreground when doing stuff.
• The opposite approach would be to request as much access/permissions as possible, which would improve quality of life and possibly allow for deeper testing, at the cost of requiring a little more awareness from the user as to why some things were possible.
• [And of course anything in-between these two]

IMO, the long-term solution should be to have 2 versions of the agent available (the extremes above), and a custom agent generator that lets you tweak individual permissions, default behaviours, etc. We had one of our interns make a good start on this last summer, but it needs a fair bit of cleanup before merging in - see ReversecLabs/drozer-agent#19 and #465

If by any chance you happen to sink your teeth into this, contributions are always welcome and super appreciated. Otherwise, we'll get to it Soon™️.

[logosred]

I completely agree with the philosophy of two agents available and the idea of having a vanilla one for doing real world testing.

If I have the time I'll take a look at it, I really need to start contributing to open-source, Drozer is great, currently using it within my own workflow which is why I wanted to ditch adb and use Drozer only.