Contextual Policy Enforcement in Android Programs with Permission Event Graphs

The difference between a malicious and a benign Android application can often be characterised by context and sequence in which certain permissions and APIs are used. We present a new technique for checking temporal properties of the interaction between an application and the Android event system. O...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chen, K, Johnson, N, D'Silva, V, Dai, S, Magrino, T, Macnamarra, K, Wu, E, Rinard, M, Song, D
Format: Conference item
Published: 2013
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author Chen, K
Johnson, N
D'Silva, V
Dai, S
Magrino, T
Macnamarra, K
Wu, E
Rinard, M
Song, D
author_facet Chen, K
Johnson, N
D'Silva, V
Dai, S
Magrino, T
Macnamarra, K
Wu, E
Rinard, M
Song, D
author_sort Chen, K
collection OXFORD
description The difference between a malicious and a benign Android application can often be characterised by context and sequence in which certain permissions and APIs are used. We present a new technique for checking temporal properties of the interaction between an application and the Android event system. Our tool can automatically detect sensitive operations being performed without the user's consent, such as recording audio after the stop button is pressed, or accessing an address book in the background. Our work centres around a new abstraction of Android applications, called a Permission Event Graph, which we construct with static analysis, and query using model checking. We evaluate application-independent properties on 152 malicious and 117 benign applications, and application-specific properties on 8 benign and 9 malicious applications. In both cases, we can detect, or prove the absence of malicious behaviour beyond the reach of existing techniques.
first_indexed 2024-03-06T19:19:26Z
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institution University of Oxford
last_indexed 2024-03-06T19:19:26Z
publishDate 2013
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spelling oxford-uuid:1990789e-f81a-47cb-a6bd-a84b63f3f2b42022-03-26T10:49:39ZContextual Policy Enforcement in Android Programs with Permission Event GraphsConference itemhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_5794uuid:1990789e-f81a-47cb-a6bd-a84b63f3f2b4Department of Computer Science2013Chen, KJohnson, ND'Silva, VDai, SMagrino, TMacnamarra, KWu, ERinard, MSong, DThe difference between a malicious and a benign Android application can often be characterised by context and sequence in which certain permissions and APIs are used. We present a new technique for checking temporal properties of the interaction between an application and the Android event system. Our tool can automatically detect sensitive operations being performed without the user's consent, such as recording audio after the stop button is pressed, or accessing an address book in the background. Our work centres around a new abstraction of Android applications, called a Permission Event Graph, which we construct with static analysis, and query using model checking. We evaluate application-independent properties on 152 malicious and 117 benign applications, and application-specific properties on 8 benign and 9 malicious applications. In both cases, we can detect, or prove the absence of malicious behaviour beyond the reach of existing techniques.
spellingShingle Chen, K
Johnson, N
D'Silva, V
Dai, S
Magrino, T
Macnamarra, K
Wu, E
Rinard, M
Song, D
Contextual Policy Enforcement in Android Programs with Permission Event Graphs
title Contextual Policy Enforcement in Android Programs with Permission Event Graphs
title_full Contextual Policy Enforcement in Android Programs with Permission Event Graphs
title_fullStr Contextual Policy Enforcement in Android Programs with Permission Event Graphs
title_full_unstemmed Contextual Policy Enforcement in Android Programs with Permission Event Graphs
title_short Contextual Policy Enforcement in Android Programs with Permission Event Graphs
title_sort contextual policy enforcement in android programs with permission event graphs
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