Server‐based code obfuscation scheme for APK tamper detection

Abstract

It is easy to decompile Android applications (or apps) owing to the structural characteristics of the app building process, but this ease makes them quite vulnerable to forgery or modification attacks. In particular, users may suffer direct financial loss if this vulnerability is exploited in security-critical private and business applications, such as online banking. One of the solutions to these problems is a code obfuscation technique. In this regard, DexGuard, which is based on ProGuard, which is integrated into the Android software development kit build system, has recently been introduced. Although DexGuard protects Android applications more effectively, an attacker is still able to analyze the hex code of a Dalvix Executable file. To resolve this weakness, we begin by analyzing the DexGuard tool from both a static and dynamic point of view. Our analysis reveals that DexGuard has some weaknesses. In this paper, we propose an obfuscation technique based on a client/server model with one-time secret key delivery using short message service or network protocol. The main concept is to store the core execute class file through obfuscation on the server, so when a program needs to execute core routines, it must request these routines from the server. In this way, we can protect Android apps from reverse engineering.

Privacy Rating of Mobile Applications Based on Crowdsourcing and Machine Learning

“…4) It is recommended that the cloud server SP calculate the control parameters and send it to the recommendation requesting user k together with the output data and time stamp t in the algorithm (Hudson et al, 2016). The recommendation request user k receives the relevant data returned by the recommendation cloud server SP on the client, and decrypts the encrypted values obtained in the algorithm, namely X and Y, using their own homomorphic encryption private keys, and the decryption results are recorded as P and Q (Li & Sugimoto, 2018;Piao et al, 2016). For each application i to be recommended in the decryption set, the client calculates the recommendation value for the application i for the recommendation request user k obtained within the time window t according to formula ( 7):…”

An Android Malicious Code Detection Method Based on Improved DCA Algorithm

“…However, in the Android application source code, to ensure the correct execution of the code, there are some code segments that can not be confused such as Android system components, native method, the method which needs to use Android serialization, enum, API, the content that resources file reference, the place where the reflection method is used, and the reference to a third-party library. In addition, code obfuscation does not cause large changes to the application code structure [27], so the statistical characteristics of the application code will not be greatly affected.…”

Personal Information Leaks with Automatic Login in Mobile Social Network Services

“…Code obfuscation [14] is a kind of program transformation that makes it difficult for attackers to read the program logic, thereby increasing the resistance to reverse engineering. There has been a lot of research on native code obfuscation in recent decades with the aim of protecting PE (Portable Executable) or ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) files.…”