A Survey of Android Malware Static Detection Technology Based on Machine Learning

Abstract

With the rapid growth of Android devices and applications, the Android environment faces more security threats. Malicious applications stealing usersʼ privacy information, sending text messages to trigger deductions, exploiting privilege escalation to control the system, etc., cause significant harm to end users. To detect Android malware, researchers have proposed various techniques, among which the machine learning-based methods with static features of apps as input vectors have apparent advantages in code coverage, operational efficiency, and massive sample detection. In this paper, we investigated Android applicationsʼ structure, analysed various sources of static features, reviewed the machine learning methods for detecting Android malware, studied the advantages and limitations of these methods, and discussed the future directions in this field. Our work will help researchers better understand the current research state, the benefits and weaknesses of each approach, and future technology directions.