SAM: The Static Analysis Module of the MAVERIC Mobile App Security Verification Platform

Abstract

The tremendous success of the mobile application paradigm is due to the ease with which new applications are uploaded by developers, distributed through the application markets (e.g. Google Play), and finally installed by the users. Yet, the very same model is causing serious security concerns, since users have no or little means to ascertain the trustworthiness of the applications they install on their devices. To protect their customers, Poste Italiane has defined the Mobile Application Verification Cluster (MAVERIC), a process for the systematic security analysis of third-party mobile apps that leverage the online services provided by the company (e.g. home banking, parcel tracking). We present SAM, a toolkit that supports this process by automating a number of operations including reverse engineering, privilege analysis, and automatic verification of security properties. We introduce the functionalities of SAM through a demonstration of the platform applied to real Android applications.