In modern days, mobile applications (apps) have become omnipresent. Components of mobile apps (such as 3rd party libraries) require to be separated and analyzed differently for security issue detection, repackaged app detection, tumor code purification and so on. Various techniques are available to automatically analyze mobile apps. However, analysis of the app’s executable binary remains challenging due to required curated database, large codebases and obfuscation. Considering these, we focus on exploring a versatile technique to separate different components with designed based features independent of code obfuscation. Particularly, we conducted an empirical study using design patterns and fuzzy signatures to separate programming design components such as 3rd party libraries. In doing so, we have built a system for automatically extracting design patterns from both the executable package (APK) and Jar of an Android application. We have experimented the relationship and impact of design patterns in 3rd party libraries, usual apps and Android malware. The experimental outcome with various standard datasets containing obfuscated apps and malwares reveals that design features like these are present significantly within them (within 60% APKs including malware). Moreover, these features remain unaltered even after app obfuscation. Finally, as a case study, we have shown that the design patterns alone can detect 3rd party libraries within the obfuscated apps considerably (F1 score is 32%). Overall, our empirical study reveals that design features might play a versatile role in separating various Android components for various purposes.

Amit Kumar Mondal

Chanchal K. Roy

University of Saskatchewan

Canada

Banani Roy

University of Saskatchewan

Kevin Schneider

University of Saskatchewan

UX (user experience) designers visually capture the UX of an app via storyboards. This method is also used in Android app development to conceptualize and design apps.

Recently, security has become an integral part of Android app UX because mobile apps are used to perform critical activities such as banking, communication, and health. Therefore, securing user information is imperative in mobile apps.

In this context, storyboarding tools offer limited capabilities to capture and reason about the security requirements of an app. Consequently, security cannot be baked into the app at design time. Hence, vulnerabilities stemming from design flaws can often occur in apps. To address this concern, in this paper, we propose a storyboard based design methodology to enable the specification and verification of security properties of an Android app at design time.

Joydeep Mitra

Kansas State University

United States

Venkatesh-Prasad Ranganath

Kansas State University