Abstract
The threat of malware on mobile devices is gaining attention recently. It is important to provide security solutions to these devices before these threats cause widespread damage. However, mobile devices have severe resource constraints in terms of memory and power. Hence, even though there are well developed techniques for malware detection on the PC domain, it requires considerable effort to adapt these techniques for mobile devices. In this paper, we outline the considerations for malware detection on mobile devices and propose a signature based malware detection method. Specifically, we detail a signature matching algorithm that is well suited for use in mobile device scanning due to its low memory requirements. Additionally, the matching algorithm is shown to have high scanning speed which makes it unobtrusive to users. Our evaluation and comparison study with the well known Clam-AV scanner shows that our solution consumes less than 50% of the memory used by Clam-AV while maintaining a fast scanning rate.
Highlights
There has been a considerable increase in the use of mobile devices for data services in addition to voice services
Keeping in mind the considerations for malware detection on a mobile device, we develop a signature based detection method
We have about 82 virus signatures with the shortest length equal to 32 bytes and the longest equal to 128 bytes. These signatures are capable of detecting 362 mobile malware, which constitute most of the current mobile viruses
Summary
There has been a considerable increase in the use of mobile devices for data services in addition to voice services. New network infrastructures are geared towards enhancing data services to these devices [18,22]. As the mobile network infrastructure continues to grow, the range of functionalities on a mobile handset is increasing as well. Allow execution of complex applications which were not seen previously on such devices. All these developments have made mobile devices an inviting target for hackers and virus writers. Apart from this, spreading worms can have a serious impact on performance of the mobile network. This is due to illegal consumption of bandwidth which can be very damaging since the available bandwidth is still somewhat limited on existing mobile networks. Malware in the mobile domain can potentially cause financial losses to both the user and network operator
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