Method for scalable analysis of android applications for security vulnerability

1. A method for scalable analysis of Android applications for security vulnerability comprising:

applying Android application analytics to an Android application, said applying comprising:

translating an Android Dalvik bytecode to an intermediate language

for program analysis;

applying an application taint tracking to said Android application, wherein said application taint tracking comprises an application taint analysis that includes a preprocessing and static taint analysis of said Android application, wherein said preprocessing comprises subjecting said Android application to unpacking and component identification and constant extraction, respectively, followed by a component dependency discovery providing an enhanced IR (intermediate representation)

the static taint analysis includes:

automatically and iteratively performing entry point analysis;

constant propagation;

reflection resolution;

program slicing;

performing taint propagation;

utilizing an indent flow statically to identify communication between components of different applications;

extracting the component dependency; and

iteratively improving static taint analysis;

applying application repacking detection to said Android application; and

determining security vulnerabilities in said Android application responsive to said analytics.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said application taint tracking comprises a descrying information leakage procedure and an application vulnerability espial procedure to said Android application.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said descrying information leakage procedure comprises leak detection of at least one of a phone number, contact list, browsing history, voice messages, SMS messages, and photos.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein said application vulnerability espial procedure comprises at least one of controlling hijack, permission re-delegation, and unauthorized data access.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said application repacking detection comprises detecting at least one repacked malware and piracy software.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said static taint analysis of said Android application comprises an entry point analysis, constant propagation analysis, program slicing and taint propagation analysis.

7. A mobile device embedded with an Android application comprising:

an Android application analytics module for a scalable analysis of Android applications for security vulnerability, said application analytics module comprising computer code for:

applying an application taint tracking to said Android application;

translating an Android Dalvik bytecode to an intermediate language for program analysis;

applying an application taint tracking to said Android application, wherein said application taint tracking comprises an application taint analysis that includes a preprocessing and static taint analysis of said Android application, wherein said preprocessing comprises subjecting said Android application to unpacking and component identification and constant extraction, respectively, followed by a component dependency discovery providing an enhanced IR (intermediate representation)

the static taint analysis includes:

automatically and iteratively performing entry point analysis;

constant propagation;

reflection resolution;

program slicing;

performing taint propagation;

utilizing an indent flow statically to identify communication between components of different applications;

extracting the component dependency; and

iteratively improving static taint analysis;

applying application repacking detection to said Android application; and

determining security vulnerabilities in said Android application responsive to said analytics.

8. The mobile device of claim 7 , wherein said application taint tracking comprises a descrying information leakage procedure and an application vulnerability espial procedure to said Android application.

9. The mobile device of claim 8 , wherein said descrying information leakage procedure comprises leak detection of at least one of a phone number, contact list, browsing history, voice messages, SMS messages, and photos.

10. The mobile device of claim 8 , wherein said application vulnerability espial procedure comprises at least one of controlling hijack, permission re-delegation, and unauthorized data access.

11. The mobile device of claim 7 , wherein said application repacking detection comprises detecting at least one repacked malware and piracy software.

12. The mobile device of claim 7 , wherein said static taint analysis of said Android application comprises an entry point analysis, constant propagation analysis, program slicing and taint propagation analysis.