acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

ACM TechNews

Virginia Tech Researchers: Android Apps Can Conspire to Mine Information From Your Smartphone


View as: Print Mobile App Share:
Many apps on Android phones can talk to one another and trade information.

Researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have conducted a large-scale study of how applications on Android phones are able to trade information.

Credit: Farsnews.com

Researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) say they have conducted the first-ever large-scale systematic study of how the trusty applications on Android phones are able to talk to one another and trade information.

The Virginia Tech researchers found these threats fall into two major categories--a malware app that launches a cyberattack, or apps that enable collusion and privilege escalation.

As part of the study, the researchers developed DIALDroid, a tool that performs inter-app security analysis. The researchers studied 110,150 apps over three years, including 100,206 of Google Play's most popular apps and 9,994 malware apps from Virus Share.

The team found the biggest security risks were some of the least utilitarian, such as those related to personalization of ringtones, widgets, and emojis.

The researchers were to present their findings at the ACM Asia Computer and Communications Security Conference (ASIACCS 2017) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

From Virginia Tech News
View Full Article

 

Abstracts Copyright © 2017 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA


 

No entries found

Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account