On Tracking Information Flows through JNI in Android Applications

Chenxiong Qian; Xiapu Luo; Yuru Shao; Alvin T.S. Chan

doi:10.1109/DSN.2014.30

On Tracking Information Flows through JNI in Android Applications

Chenxiong Qian, Xiapu Luo, Yuru Shao, Alvin T.S. Chan

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceeding › Conference article published in proceeding or book › Academic research › peer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Android provides native development kit through JNI for developing high-performance applications (or simply apps). Although recent years have witnessed a considerable increase in the number of apps employing native libraries, only a few systems can examine them. However, none of them scrutinizes the interactions through JNI in them. In this paper, we conduct a systematic study on tracking information flows through JNI in apps. More precisely, we first perform a large-scale examination on apps using JNI and report interesting observations. Then, we identify scenarios where information flows uncaught by existing systems can result in information leakage. Based on these insights, we propose and implement NDroid, an efficient dynamic taint analysis system for checking information flows through JNI. The evaluation through real apps shows NDroid can effectively identify information leaks through JNI with low performance overheads.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings - 44th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, DSN 2014
Publisher	IEEE
Pages	180-191
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Electronic)	9781479922338
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/DSN.2014.30
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2014
Event	44th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, DSN 2014 - Atlanta, United States Duration: 23 Jun 2014 → 26 Jun 2014

Conference

Conference	44th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, DSN 2014
Country/Territory	United States
City	Atlanta
Period	23/06/14 → 26/06/14

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computer Networks and Communications
Hardware and Architecture
Software

More information

10.1109/DSN.2014.30

Cite this

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abstract = "Android provides native development kit through JNI for developing high-performance applications (or simply apps). Although recent years have witnessed a considerable increase in the number of apps employing native libraries, only a few systems can examine them. However, none of them scrutinizes the interactions through JNI in them. In this paper, we conduct a systematic study on tracking information flows through JNI in apps. More precisely, we first perform a large-scale examination on apps using JNI and report interesting observations. Then, we identify scenarios where information flows uncaught by existing systems can result in information leakage. Based on these insights, we propose and implement NDroid, an efficient dynamic taint analysis system for checking information flows through JNI. The evaluation through real apps shows NDroid can effectively identify information leaks through JNI with low performance overheads.",

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Qian, C, Luo, X, Shao, Y & Chan, ATS 2014, On Tracking Information Flows through JNI in Android Applications. in Proceedings - 44th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, DSN 2014., 6903578, IEEE, pp. 180-191, 44th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, DSN 2014, Atlanta, United States, 23/06/14. https://doi.org/10.1109/DSN.2014.30

On Tracking Information Flows through JNI in Android Applications. / Qian, Chenxiong; Luo, Xiapu; Shao, Yuru et al.
Proceedings - 44th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, DSN 2014. IEEE, 2014. p. 180-191 6903578.

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceeding › Conference article published in proceeding or book › Academic research › peer-review

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On Tracking Information Flows through JNI in Android Applications

Abstract

Conference

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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