Abstract
Mobile app ads pose a far greater security threat to users than adverts on computer browsers. This is because app developers must embed a Software Development Kit (SDK), called an ad library or ad lib for short, provided by ad networks (i.e., ad companies) into their app program, and then merge and compile it into an Android PacKage (APK) execution file. The ad lib thus becomes a part of the entire app, and shares the whole permissions granted to the app. Unfortunately, this also resulted in many security issues, such as ad libs abusing the permissions to collect and leak private data, ad servers redirecting ad requests to download malicious JavaScript from unknown servers to execute it in the background of the mobile operating system without the user’s consent. The more well-known an embedded ad lib, the safer the app may be, and vice versa. Importantly, while decompiling an APK to inspect its source code may not identify the ad lib(s), executing the app on a simulator can reveal the network behavior of the embedded ad lib(s). Ad libs exhibit different behavior patterns when communicating with ad servers. This study uses a dynamic analysis method to inspect an executing app, and plots the ad lib behavior patterns related to the advertisement into a graph. It is then determined whether or not the ad lib is from a trusted ad network using comparisons of graph similarities.
Highlights
According to a report released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) of the United States on 26 April 2017 [1], the trend of digital advertising has transferred from personal computers to mobile devices
Some of the advertising companies listed ongraphs the AppBrain website their supersonicads-a.akamaihd.net surpax wpc.32DF9.rhocdn.net supersonicads-a.akamaihd.net surpax ads.mopub.com chosen and processed according to the above process, with the results presented in Table 1 ad libs, only one type of advertising graph was observed in the experiment, but m exhibited different(e)advertising behavior patterns (e) because of different advertising (e) typ mysearch-online omax.admarvel.com orand full page, or version difference
Mobile security issues today are not limited to malicious apps
Summary
According to a report released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) of the United States on 26 April 2017 [1], the trend of digital advertising has transferred from personal computers to mobile devices. In 2016, the annual revenue of digital advertising in the United States was USD. 72.5 billion, of which revenue from mobile ads exceeded 50% for the first time, reaching USD. The Mobile Application Industry Report for 2015 [2] revealed more about the popularity and importance of mobile advertising: 82% of app developers made a profit by advertising, and 91%. Consumers were not willing to pay to download apps, so app developers turned to free apps and used ads to make profit. The report on malicious mobile software evolution released by Kaspersky in February 2017 [3].
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