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Repackaging is a serious threat to the Android ecosystem as it deprives app developers of their benefits, contributes to spreading malware on users' devices, and increases the workload of market maintainers. In the space of six years, the…
Advances in smartphone technology have promoted the rapid development of mobile apps. However, the availability of a huge number of mobile apps in application stores has imposed the challenge of finding the right apps to meet the user…
Android's filesystem access control is a crucial aspect of its system integrity. It utilizes a combination of mandatory access controls, such as SELinux, and discretionary access controls, like Unix permissions, along with specialized…
Among existing online mobile-use benchmarks, AndroidWorld has emerged as the dominant benchmark due to its reproducible environment and deterministic evaluation; however, recent agents achieving over 90% success rates indicate its…
Desktop browser extensions have long allowed users to improve their experience online and tackle widespread harms on websites. So far, no equivalent solution exists for mobile apps, despite the fact that individuals now spend significantly…
Android apps are built on APIs that abstract core Android system functionalities. These APIs are officially documented in multiple files distributed with the Android source code or SDK, which we collectively refer to as Android API Lists…
Android utilizes a security mechanism that requires apps to request permission for accessing sensitive user data, e.g., contacts and SMSs, or certain system features, e.g., camera and Internet access. However, Android apps tend to be…
Limited by the small keyboard, most mobile apps support the automatic login feature for better user experience. Therefore, users avoid the inconvenience of retyping their ID and password when an app runs in the foreground again. However,…
Third-party security apps are an integral part of the Android app ecosystem. Many users install them as an extra layer of protection for their devices. There are hundreds of such security apps, both free and paid in Google Play Store and…
The packaging model of Android apps requires the entire code necessary for the execution of an app to be shipped into one single apk file. Thus, an analysis of Android apps often visits code which is not part of the functionality delivered…
A virtual appliance contains a target application, and the running environment necessary for running that application. Users run an appliance using a virtualization engine, freeing them from the need to make sure that the target application…
"App stores" are online software stores where end users may browse, purchase, download, and install software applications. By far, the best known app stores are associated with mobile platforms, such as Google Play for Android and Apple's…
Screen recordings of mobile applications are easy to obtain and capture a wealth of information pertinent to software developers (e.g., bugs or feature requests), making them a popular mechanism for crowdsourced app feedback. Thus, these…
In this paper, we seek to better understand Android obfuscation and depict a holistic view of the usage of obfuscation through a large-scale investigation in the wild. In particular, we focus on four popular obfuscation approaches:…
Despite our growing reliance on mobile phones for a wide range of daily tasks, their operation remains largely opaque. A number of previous studies have addressed elements of this problem in a partial fashion, trading off analytic…
Nowadays, voice assistants help users complete tasks on the smartphone with voice commands, replacing traditional touchscreen interactions when such interactions are inhibited. However, the usability of those tools remains moderate due to…
The Android ecosystem is profoundly fragmented due to the frequent updates of the Android system and the prevalent customizations by mobile device manufacturers. Previous research primarily focused on identifying and repairing…
A common security architecture is based on the protection of certain resources by permission checks (used e.g., in Android and Blackberry). It has some limitations, for instance, when applications are granted more permissions than they…
Mobile malware has been growing in scale and complexity as smartphone usage continues to rise. Android has surpassed other mobile platforms as the most popular whilst also witnessing a dramatic increase in malware targeting the platform. A…
In recent years the PC has been replaced by mobile devices for many security sensitive operations, both from a privacy and a financial standpoint. While security mechanisms are deployed at various levels, these are frequently put under…