Android application security: detecting Android malware and evaluating anti-malware software

Abstract

Mobile devices have become widespread computing technology, people prefer to use than desktop devices. These connected devices and their features like an exchange of data, video calling etc. have made our lives simple but, this has also increased data security concerns. At present, Google's Android is dominating the market share of mobile devices; as a result, it has become a big target for malware writers. Android users can download applications from official or third-party stores. Google implements various security policies to ensure secure distribution of applications but third-party application stores have less efficient or no such policies. This makes such markets more attractive for malware writers. This paper investigates Android application security by analysing 1,946 free most downloaded Android applications in the year 2016: 1,300 from Google Play Store and 646 from third-party Android applications. 100 samples from 33 different malware families (with variants) prominent in the Android market during January 2016 to April 2016 were also collected that acted as a template for malware detection. Further, based on detected malware samples, an evaluation-based study on ten anti-malware applications is performed to identify how well they protect users from malware.