Investigation of cyber attacks using post-installation app detection method

Abstract

The widespread use of smartphones worldwide in recent years has led to a corresponding rise in the number of mobile applications available for Android devices. These apps offer users convenient ways to perform various daily tasks but their proliferation has also created an environment in which attackers can steal sensitive information from smartphones. Insecure options employed by many app developers to create vulnerabilities that can be exploited by the attackers to gain access smartphones’ data. While existing methods can detect malware during an app installation but they do not sufficiently address the post-installation attacks such as fake apps or Man-in-the-Disk (MITD) attacks. The proposed method provide solution to address the post-installation attacks includes data leakage, malware injection, repackaging, reverse engineering, privilege escalation, and UI spoofing. To mitigate this risk, the Post-Installation App Detection Method is proposed to monitor and regulate sensitive information flow and prevent MITD attacks and is achieved 97% accuracy in detection of MITD attacks.

Keywords

• Cyber-attacks
• malware
• post-installation app attacks
• fake apps
• MITD attacks
• smartphones