Kalysch A (2020)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Thesis
Publication year: 2020
Edited Volumes: Android Application Hardening: Attack Surface Reduction and IP Protection Mechanisms
URI: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-fau/frontdoor/index/index/docId/14149
In this thesis, we investigate different possibilities to protect the Android ecosystem better. We focus on protection mechanisms for application developers, and present modern attacks against sandbox-protected applications and the developer’s intellectual property, ultimately providing enhanced approaches for defense against these attacks. Our defensive approaches range from runtime-shielding measures to analysis-impeding obfuscation mechanisms. First, we take a closer look at communication possibilities of sandboxed applications on Android, namely the UI layer and Android’s inter-process communication. We introduce attacks on applications working through the actors on Android’s UI, starting with overlay windows, accessibility services, input editors, and screen captures. Android’s inter-process communication is the second attack avenue we pursue. It is the primary means of communication for apps to interact with each other despite being sandboxed by the Android system. We show through assessments of the Google Play Store and third-party app stores that attacks on these mechanisms pose a blind-spot in current attack models considered by developers. To provide relief we introduce new protection mechanisms that developers can implement and enhance testing methodologies to consider these attacks in the future. Second, we direct the reader’s attention towards attacks on the developer’s intellectual property. Due to Android’s open-source nature and openly communicated standards, a trend of repackaging popular applications with malicious enhancements and republishing the malicious app has rooted itself in the malware community. To counteract this development, we present an enhanced centroid-based approach at clone detection and improved analysis-impeding obfuscation mechanisms that build on virtualization-based obfuscation. Our obfuscation approach works on Android’s current runtime environment, as well as the previously employed ‘Dalvik virtual machine’, and can be used to obfuscate critical portions of an application’s functionality against prying eyes. To make valid assumptions about the strength of virtualization-based obfuscation, we conduct a de-obfuscation study on the more mature x86/x64 platform, developing a reverse engineering approach for virtualization-obfuscated binaries. We analyzed several hundred thousand Android applications during our research with automated approaches and several thousand apps with manual analysis, always opting for a responsible disclosure process of found vulnerabilities by providing developers with at least three months’ due notice before attempting a publication. The tools presented in this thesis are open-sourced under the MIT license, to help in the inclusion of development projects and their extension or further development. With the insights gained through the research for this thesis, we hope to provide developers with the tools and testing approaches they need to make the Android ecosystem more secure and safe.
APA:
Kalysch, A. (2020). Android Application Hardening: Attack Surface Reduction and IP Protection Mechanisms (Dissertation).
MLA:
Kalysch, Anatoli. Android Application Hardening: Attack Surface Reduction and IP Protection Mechanisms. Dissertation, 2020.
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