Mind the Gap: Finding What Updates Have (Really) Changed in Android Applications

Johannes Feichtner, Lukas Neugebauer, Dominik Ziegler

2019

Abstract

Android apps often receive updates that introduce new functionality or tackle problems, ranging from critical security issues to usability-related bugs. Although developers tend to briefly denote changes when releasing new versions, it remains unclear what has actually been modified in the program code. Verifying even subtle changes between two Android apps is challenging due to the widespread use of code transformations and obfuscation techniques. In this paper, we present a new framework to precisely pinpoint differences between Android apps. By pursuing a multi-level comparison strategy that targets resources and obfuscation-invariant code elements, we succeed in highlighting similarities and changes among apps. In case studies, we demonstrate the need and practical benefits of our solution and show how well it is suited to verify changelogs.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Feichtner J., Neugebauer L. and Ziegler D. (2019). Mind the Gap: Finding What Updates Have (Really) Changed in Android Applications.In Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on e-Business and Telecommunications - Volume 2: SECRYPT, ISBN 978-989-758-378-0, pages 306-313. DOI: 10.5220/0008119303060313

in Bibtex Style

@conference{secrypt19,
author={Johannes Feichtner and Lukas Neugebauer and Dominik Ziegler},
title={Mind the Gap: Finding What Updates Have (Really) Changed in Android Applications},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on e-Business and Telecommunications - Volume 2: SECRYPT,},
year={2019},
pages={306-313},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0008119303060313},
isbn={978-989-758-378-0},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on e-Business and Telecommunications - Volume 2: SECRYPT,
TI - Mind the Gap: Finding What Updates Have (Really) Changed in Android Applications
SN - 978-989-758-378-0
AU - Feichtner J.
AU - Neugebauer L.
AU - Ziegler D.
PY - 2019
SP - 306
EP - 313
DO - 10.5220/0008119303060313