Android-SRV: Scenario-Based Runtime Verification of Android Applications

Abstract

With the wide-spread usage of Android systems, Android applications have become the target of mobile malwares. Therefore, an effective verification approach for Android applications is essential. Runtime verification based on monitors is one of the most promising techniques to check the software’s behaviors. Currently, there are a number of monitoring approaches for Android applications. However, these approaches mainly have two limitations. First, there is no effective mechanism to reduce the load on Android applications caused by monitors. Second, these approaches mainly rely on logic-based specifications, which are complex and not intuitive for being used in practice. In order to address these two limitations, this paper proposes a scenario-based runtime verification approach for Android applications (called Android-SRV). The approach concentrates on providing a dynamic and usable solution for monitoring applications during execution with the help of aspect-oriented programming. It will translate the scenario-based specification (called property sequence charts (PSCs)) into multi-valued automata (MAs), and then generate AspectJ codes from the MA. Finally, these AspectJ codes are weaved into the target system as monitors. Considering the impact of the monitors on performance load in the Android system, the paper proposes local and cloud collaboration mechanisms to reduce the impact. The scenario-based specification is more intuitive than the traditional logic-based specifications. The approach is shown to be an effective means for monitoring Android applications with controlled overload.