Improving Android application security for intent based attacks

Abstract

Inter-Process Communication (IPC) is an Android functionality that enables one application to use a component of another application. The IPC uses so called Intents, which is a message passing mechanism in Android, for this purpose. We examine the Android communication model to analyze the vulnerabilities pertaining to Intents during Inter-Process Communication by performing hybrid analysis and use the results obtained from the analysis to improve the overall application security and privacy from such vulnerabilities. Simulation results show how hybrid analysis and use of Intent certificates can improve the overall security of an Android application.