Messaging Attacks on Android: Vulnerabilities and Intrusion Detection

Abstract

Currently, Android is the leading mobile operating system in number of users worldwide. On the security side, Android has had significant challenges despite the efforts of the Android designers to provide a secure environment for apps. In this paper, we present numerous attacks targeting the messaging framework of the Android system. Our focus is on SMS, USSD, and the evolution of their associated security in Android and accordingly the development of related attacks. Also, we shed light on the Android elements that are responsible for these attacks. Furthermore, we present the architecture of an intrusion detection system (IDS) that promises to thwart SMS messaging attacks. Our IDS shows a detection rate of 87.50% with zero false positives. Copyright © 2015 Khodor Hamandi et al.