Semantically Rich Application-Centric Security in Android

Authors:
  • MOMachigar Ongtang
    Machigar Ongtang
  • SMStephen McLaughlin
    Stephen McLaughlin
  • WEWilliam Enck
    William Enck
  • PMPatrick McDaniel
    Patrick McDaniel
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Smartphones are now ubiquitous. However, the security requirements of these relatively new systems and the applications they support are still being understood. As a result, the security infrastructure available in current smartphone operating systems is largely underdeveloped. In this paper, we consider the security requirements of smartphone applications and augment the existing Android operating system with a framework to meet them. We present Secure Application INTeraction (Saint), a modified infrastructure that governs install-time permission assignment and their run-time use as dictated by application provider policy. An in-depth description of the semantics of application policy is presented. The architecture and technical detail of Saint is given, and areas for extension, optimization, and improvement explored. As we show through concrete example, Saint provides necessary utility for applications to assert and control the security decisions on the platform.