A Security Sandbox Approach of Android Based on Hook Mechanism

As the most widely applied mobile operating system for smartphones, Android is challenged by fast growing security problems, which are caused by malicious applications. Behaviors of malicious applications have become more and more inconspicuous, which largely increase the difficulties of security detection. This paper provides a new security sandbox approach of Android based on hook mechanism, to further enrich Android malware detection technologies. This new sandbox monitors the behaviors of target application by using a process hook-based dynamic tracking method during its running period. Compared to existing techniques, (1) this approach can create a virtual space where apk can be installed, run, and uninstalled, and it is isolated from the outside and (2) a risk assessment approach based on behavior analysis is given so that users can obtain an explicit risk prognosis for an application to improve their safety. Tests on malware and normal application samples verify this new security sandbox.