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Detecting Malicious Mobile Applications in Android OS

Authors:
Sun Teck Tan
Choon Rui Tan

Keywords: malicious applications; Android OS; Pattern matching.

Abstract:
The use of smartphones has become increasingly popular over the years due to increasing affordability and access to countless useful applications. The Android OS accounts for the majority of the smartphone market share due to its open source nature. This entices many smartphone manufactures to build Android phones. However, its popularity has also made Android OS an attractive target for cybercriminals who develop malicious applications, thereby putting Android mobile users at risk. One of the greatest challenges in protecting mobile users is detecting malicious application among the numerous applications installed on the smartphone. 2,500 mobile applications have been analysed, with 50 free and 50 paid applications taken from each category in the Google Play Store. We observe a distinct correlation between each application’s category and its requested permissions, which mean using the pattern of requested permissions. Therefore, using the pattern of requested permissions to detect malicious applications can be an effective method. A filter list can be constructed by further examination on the pattern of the requested permissions. We developed an Android mobile application which uses these filters to scan all the installed applications to detect the presence malicious applications and to flag them for deletion. Additionally, we developed a gamified to cater to non IT-savvy users to use it in a fun and educational manner

Pages: 1 to 11

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2015

Publication date: November 15, 2015

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2163-9027

ISBN: 978-1-61208-439-8

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Dates: from November 15, 2015 to November 20, 2015