EAI Endorsed Transactions on Ubiquitous Environments

Issue 4, 2015

Editor(s)-in-Chief: Krishna M. Sivalingam

Articles
Information

On Malware Leveraging the Android Accessibility Framework
Appears in:
ue 15(4): e1

Authors:
Joshua Kraunelis, Yinjie Chen, Zhen Ling, Xinwen Fu, Wei Zhao

Abstract:
The number of Android malware has been increasing dramatically in recent years. Android malware can violate users’ security, privacy and damage their economic situation. Study of new malware will allow us to better understand the threat and design effective anti-malware strategies. In this paper,…The number of Android malware has been increasing dramatically in recent years. Android malware can violate users’
security, privacy and damage their economic situation. Study of new malware will allow us to better understand the threat
and design effective anti-malware strategies. In this paper, we introduce a new type of malware exploiting Android’s
accessibility framework and describe a condition which allows malicious payloads to usurp control of the screen, steal
user credentials and compromise user privacy and security. We implement a proof of concept malware to demonstrate
such vulnerabilities and present experimental findings on the success rates of this attack. We show that 100% of
application launches can be detected using this malware, and 100% of the time a malicious Activity can gain control of
the screen. Our major contribution is two-fold. First, we are the first to discover the category of new Android malware
manipulating Android’s accessibility framework. Second, our study finds new types of attacks and complements the
categorization of Android malware by Zhou and Jiang [32]. This prompts the community to re-think categorization of
malware for categorizing existing attacks as well as predicting new attacks.
more »
The analysis of contextual factors on the use of smartphones applications
Appears in:
ue 15(4): e2

Authors:
A.H. Kronbauer, C.A.S. Santos

Abstract:
The development of methodologies and techniques to evaluate smartphones usability is an emerging topic in the scientific community and triggers discussions about which methodology is most appropriate. The lack of consensus is due to the inherent difficulty on capturing context data in the scenari…The development of methodologies and techniques to evaluate smartphones usability is an emerging topic in the scientific
community and triggers discussions about which methodology is most appropriate. The lack of consensus is due to the
inherent difficulty on capturing context data in the scenarios where the experiments take place and on relating them to the
results found. This work aims at correlate potential usability problems in mobile applications with contextual factors that
may occur during users’ interactions on different devices, such as environment luminosity, device screen resolution, and
the user’s activity while interacting with the application. The following methodology was applied to carry out a field
experiment: (1) identification of contextual factors that may influence users’ interaction; (2) use of UXEProject
Infrastructure to support the automatic capture of applications’ context data, by monitoring and storing quantitative,
subjective and contextual data from applications’ use; (3) implementation of experiments with real users, which have
different profiles, using three different mobile applications over an one year period. In this paper, we present and discuss
the results obtained during this study.
more »
Method, Design and Implementation of an Indoor Tracking System with Concurrent Fault Localization
Appears in:
ue 15(4): e3

Authors:
Fabio Veronese, Sara Comai, Fabio Salice

Abstract:
Thanks to the diffusion of wearable devices there are several indoor tracking systems. Among them, RF-based have been deeply studied for their flexibility and limited costs. These systems can be employed as assistive tools only being dependable, identifying faults. We propose two methods to provi…Thanks to the diffusion of wearable devices there are several indoor tracking systems. Among them, RF-based have
been deeply studied for their flexibility and limited costs. These systems can be employed as assistive tools only being
dependable, identifying faults. We propose two methods to provide multiuser tracking with concurrent localization
of natural hardware and human-made faults. The first method relies on independent measurement systems and on a
model-based fault localization apparatus, checking for discrepancies in the subsystems behavior. The second provides an
estimation of the fault probability for each device, based on the data collected at runtime. These methods aim to provide
dependable tracking for fragile people (such as elderly or people with small impairments). We present examples of Indoor
Human Tracking simulations in a large environment, and an implemented case-study. The collected data confirm the
validity of both the approaches and highlight their diversity.
more »
Analyzing Pedestrian Flows Based on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Captures
Appears in:
ue 15(4): e4

Authors:
Lorenz Schauer, Martin Werner

Abstract:
The rapid deployment of smartphones has led to a wide adoption of wireless communication systems such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Both techniques leak information to the surroundings during operation. This information has been used in literature for estimating pedestrian flows, b ut t he c orrelation…The rapid deployment of smartphones has led to a wide adoption of wireless communication systems
such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Both techniques leak information to the surroundings during operation. This
information has been used in literature for estimating pedestrian flows, b ut t he c orrelation t o g round truth
has not yet been evaluated. Thus, a reliable deployment in real world scenarios is rather difficult. To fill in this
gap, we use ground truth provided by the security check process at a major airport and evaluate the quality
of crowd information gathered from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth captures. We analyze estimated pedestrian flows
and present three approaches improving the accuracy compared to a naive count of captured MAC addresses.
Such counts only showed an impractical Pearson correlation of 0.53 for Bluetooth and 0.61 for Wi-Fi. The
presented approaches yield a better correlation and allow for a practical estimation of pedestrian flows.
more »
Android Apps Risk Evaluation: a methodology
Appears in:
ue 15(4): e5

Authors:
Andrea Atzeni, Tao Su, Madalina Baltatu, Rosalia D'Alessandro, Giovanni Pessiva

Abstract:
Android uses a permission-based security model to limit its app's capability. However, the user's decision is almost completely unrelated to the app's risk level due to insucient information. The platform openness and the plethora of available software also make dangerous apps (not necessarily m…Android uses a permission-based security model to limit its app's capability. However, the user's decision is
almost completely unrelated to the app's risk level due to insucient information. The platform openness and
the plethora of available software also make dangerous apps (not necessarily malware) very common.
To enhance end-user security awareness, we propose a new approach and tool to evaluate the potential risks of
Android app packages. We integrated various static and dynamic analysis techniques into a framework able to
detect suspicious activities, map them to ne-grained risk categories and evaluate them with the fuzzy logic
algorithm. This tool can retrieve and analyse large quantities of apps automatically and provides a simple logic
for other tools to integrate with. Finally, our software has been tested on a large set of real-world samples, both
benign and malicious, demonstrating its eciency (4s/app) and a reasonable capacity to evaluate the risk of
Android app packages.
more »

Scope

This journal will provide a venue for publishing the latest research and developments in the area of ubiquitous environments. Marc Weiser’s original vision of an ubiquitous computing environment may not be fully realized yet. However, several significant strides have been made in the past decade in bringing us closer to realizing this vision. The journal will deal with contributions in the topics of smart spaces with ambient intelligence where sensors in the environment help a system to appropriately react to people, context-aware pervasive computing systems where the current context enables the system to guide the user’s tasks, home area networking systems that can intelligently monitor, track and control a home’s environment, and vehicular sensor networks, where a collection of sensors monitor and control the vehicle’s well-being.

The journal in particular welcomes contributions that deal with the various aspects of computing and communications that help achieve this goal. These include Ubiquitous Environments Infrastructure Design and Implementation, Operating Systems and Programming Environments for Smart Mobile Devices, Embedded Systems and Networking Support for Ubiquitous Environments, Middleware, Security and Privacy Support for Ubiquitous Environments, and Hardware/Software Co-design principles. Papers that describe innovative applications and test-beds that demonstrate the utility of ubiquitous environments, and tools that enable development of novel applications are also welcome.

Special Issues

Special Issue Editors: Erdil D. Cenk (Sacred Heart University)

Anupam Joshi (University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, USA)
Giovanni Stea (University of Pisa)
Palanivel Kodeswaran (IBM India Research Lab, Bangalore, India)
Salil Kanhere (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia)
Surendar Chandra (Datrium, Sunnyvale, US…

Anupam Joshi (University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, USA)
Giovanni Stea (University of Pisa)
Palanivel Kodeswaran (IBM India Research Lab, Bangalore, India)
Salil Kanhere (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia)
Surendar Chandra (Datrium, Sunnyvale, USA)
Syed Ahmed Hassan (Kyungpook National University, South Korea)
Wenye Wang (North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA)
Yunhao Liu (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China)

Journal Blurb

Temporarily closed open source journal on Future Internet.

Publisher: ICST
ISSN: 2032-9377
Volume: 1

Published: 2015-05-26

On Malware Leveraging the Android Accessibility Framework

The analysis of contextual factors on the use of smartphones applications

Method, Design and Implementation of an Indoor Tracking System with Concurrent Fault Localization

Analyzing Pedestrian Flows Based on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Captures

Android Apps Risk Evaluation: a methodology

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