Static Analysis of Malware in Android-based Platforms: A Progress Study

Abstract

Android-based platforms enable various applications to request and gain permissions when they need to access the resources of our mobile-phones. This keeps users’ data and credentials on hazards and makes them vulnerable to attackers. Several research works have been conducted on this issue and numerous techniques have been developed for detecting malware. Some of these techniques focus on static analysis by inspecting the application package to discover any suspicious hidden code. Such static analysis based schemes are commonly utilized in anti-virus software, including the signature-based and the permission-based mechanisms. In this context, this paper provides a progress study for static analysis of malware in Android-based platforms. We initially investigate common types of malware and present the main categories of malware analysis methods. We, then, provides a literature review on some research works that have been introduced in the last few years on static analysis of Android malware, for both signature-based and the permission-based approaches. However, it is encouraged to provide novel ideas that can help in developing innovative solutions and intelligent systems for detecting various malware in our digital world.