Improving traditional Android MDMs with non-traditional means

Abstract

Enterprise Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions have become widely adopted as large organizations strive to secure their data and exert more control over the mobile devices that access it. In our efforts to provide a more fine-grained control over the mobile device functions, we have discovered additional system-wide capabilities for all levels of Android MDM applications. In addition, we have developed mechanisms that can prevent the installation of undesired applications and block the removal of necessary applications. To achieve that, we employ two development permissions via the Android Debug Bridge (adb) which allows a remote operator to modify the settings database that controls certain capabilities and resources on the device. The proposed approach significantly increases the level of control of an MDM by enabling whitelisting and blacklisting of applications and functionality.