Software Engineering Institute

Both the number of Android OS-enabled mobile device users and the malware targeting Android OS are growing exponentially. This poses a clear and present danger to users of these devices that are currently poorly protected and highly vulnerable to malware infection. The number of new Android apps appearing on authorized app markets such as Google Play is growing daily, and there is not a practical, effective approach to analyze them for suspicion assessment, which heightens the probability of a malicious app getting past any security filters and ending up being installed on multiple devices.

The purpose of our research is to (1) disallow malicious apps from ever being available for download via app markets and (2) detect and triage apps exhibiting malicious behaviors on an actual mobile device.

Presented by Joe Yankel at the 2014 Research Review.