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A comprehensive framework for inter-app ICC security analysis of Android apps

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Abstract

The Inter-Component Communication (ICC) model in Android enables the sharing of data and services among app components. However, it has been associated with several problems, including complexity, support for unconstrained communication, and difficulties for developers to understand. These issues have led to numerous security vulnerabilities in Android ICC. While existing research has focused on specific subsets of these vulnerabilities, it lacks comprehensive and scalable modeling of app specifications and interactions, which limits the precision of analysis. To tackle these problems, we introduce VAnDroid3, a Model-Driven Reverse Engineering (MDRE) framework. VAnDroid3 utilizes purposeful model-based representations to enhance the comprehension of apps and their interactions. We have made significant extensions to our previous work, which include the identification of six prominent ICC vulnerabilities and the consideration of both Intent and Data sharing mechanisms that facilitate ICCs. By employing MDRE techniques to create more efficient and accurate domain-specific models from apps, VAnDroid3 enables the analysis of ICC vulnerabilities on intra- and inter-app communication levels. We have implemented VAnDroid3 as an Eclipse-based tool and conducted extensive experiments to evaluate its correctness, scalability, and run-time performance. Additionally, we compared VAnDroid3 with state-of-the-art tools. The results substantiate VAnDroid3 as a promising framework for revealing Android inter-app ICC security issues.

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Notes

  1. https://mdse.ui.ac.ir/vandroid3/.

  2. https://github.com/soot-oss.

  3. https://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view_page.php?id=7238.

  4. https://github.com/javapathfinder/jpf-core/wiki.

  5. https://mdse.ui.ac.ir/vandroid3/.

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  1. Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    Atefeh Nirumand

  2. MDSE Research Group, Faculty of Computer Engineering, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

    Bahman Zamani & Behrouz Tork Ladani

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Appendices

Appendix

Transform and integrate to ICC model

Implicit Communication Extractor. As shown in Algorithm 1 (lines 21–28), to extract all potential implicit ICCs, the intents whose type (according to the Intent schema) is equal to Implicit are considered. Then, according to the specifications of each intent, the specifications of the implicit communications that may occur between app components through the desired intent are retrieved. These specifications include: senderComp: the component that is specified by senderComp of the intent, senderApp: the application whose component is specified by senderComp of the intent, receiverComp: the components that can receive and handle the desired intent, and receiverApp: the applications containing these components.

As indicated in Algorithm 1 (lines 24–27), VAnDroid3 conducts a precise intent resolution (matching) (Android Developers 2022) process to extract the receiver components. In this process, to identify the components receiving the desired implicit intent, a procedure of mapping a given intent to possible target components is performed. In this mapping, the specifications of the intent are compared with the specifications of component interfaces (intent filters) in all components of the app bundle through three major tests: Action test, Category test, and Data test. As a result of these tests, the components that can receive and handle the intent are specified.

Data Manipulation Communication Extractor. As depicted in Algorithm 2 (lines 23–38), to extract all potential data manipulation communications, the ContentURIrequests whose RequestType (according to the ContentURIrequest schema) is equal to ManipulationRequest are considered. After that, for each ContentURIrequest, according to the specifications of the URI that exists in the request, the specifications of data manipulation communication that may occur between app components through the URI are retrieved, which include: senderComp: the component that specified by senderComp of the ContentURIrequest, senderApp: the application whose component specified by senderComp of the ContentURIrequest, receiverComp: the Content Provider existing in the app bundle that can receive and handle the desired ContentURIrequest, and receiverApp: the application containing the Content Provider.

As indicated in Algorithm 2 (lines 27–37), to extract the receiver Content Provider for data access and data manipulation communications, VAnDroid3 conducts a precise URI resolution process. In this process, the authority test is performed. In this test, the authority of the URI is compared with the authority of all Content Provider components in the bundle. As a result, the Content Provider that is able to receive and handle the desired ContentURIrequest is specified.

Table 18 A summary of the Z notation used in the presented formal specification of Android ICC vulnerabilities
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The Z specification language

One of the well-known formal languages for describing and reasoning information systems and their properties is the Z notation, which has been considered in both educational and research fields since its development in the 1980s (Castro et al. 2015). This language has excellent features that motivate us to use it for providing the formal specification of Android ICC vulnerabilities. The Z language, based on mathematical logic and set theory, can be used to produce precise and unambiguous documentation in which information is structured and presented at an appropriate level of abstraction that leads to a common understanding among all those who interacted with the system (Woodcock and Davies 2011; Castro et al. 2015; Spivey and Abrial 1992). These formal specifications describe what the system must do and its features and do not focus on how those features are achieved. Another feature of Z is that the specifications are structured through the notation of schema, and generally, each schema has two compartments: a declaration section and a constraint/predicate section (Woodcock and Davies 2011; Castro et al. 2015). Table 18 briefly describes the Z notation used in this paper’s presented formal specification of Android ICC vulnerabilities.

Timing results for the incremental ICC analysis feature

Tables 19 and 20 show the time that it takes to reanalyze a revised Android system by VAndroid3 for each experiment in Sect. 6.3.2.

Table 19 Execution time for incremental ICC analysis of the first five app bundles
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Table 20 Execution time for incremental ICC analysis of the last five app bundles
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Nirumand, A., Zamani, B. & Ladani, B.T. A comprehensive framework for inter-app ICC security analysis of Android apps. Autom Softw Eng 31, 45 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10515-024-00439-8

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