SANER 2025
Tue 4 - Fri 7 March 2025 Montréal, Québec, Canada
Fri 7 Mar 2025 16:00 - 16:15 at L-1710 - Software Security Chair(s): Sabbir M. Saleh

Researchers generally look for specific files within Android application packages (APKs) during their analysis, focusing on common files such as Dalvik bytecode or the Android manifest. However, Android apps are complex archive files containing various types of files. Failing to account for all files during analyses can compromise end-user security, and despite the wealth of existing techniques to analyze Android apps, only a few studies explore the diversity of files within apps. To bridge this gap, we propose the first large-scale empirical study that dissects the content of Android apps from Google Play. In our study, we explore the different file types and their usage trends. We enhance our analysis by exploring compressed files and the files they contain. We finally investigate to which extent developers use disguised files, i.e., files whose extension is conventionally associated with a file type different than its own (e.g., a Dalvik dex file with the extension “.png”), and study if they are a hint of maliciousness. Our results show that: ❶ Android apps comprise diverse file types, with over 15 000 distinct file extensions and more than 1000 unique file types found in our dataset containing over 400 000 APKs; and ❷ we found many cases where developers use a wrong relation between the file type and its extension to load malicious code at runtime.

Fri 7 Mar

Displayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change

15:30 - 17:00
Software SecurityEarly Research Achievement (ERA) Track / Research Papers at L-1710
Chair(s): Sabbir M. Saleh University of Western Ontario
15:30
15m
Talk
Characterizing Logs in Vulnerability Reports: In-Depth Analysis and Security ImplicationsBest Paper Award
Research Papers
Yao Shu Wuhan University, Lianyu Zheng Wuhan University, Jinfu Chen Wuhan University, Jifeng Xuan Wuhan University
15:45
15m
Talk
Conan: Uncover Consensus Issues in Distributed Databases Using Fuzzing-driven Fault Injection
Research Papers
Haojia Huang Sun Yat-Sen Universty, Pengfei Chen Sun Yat-sen University, Guangba  Yu Sun Yat-sen University, Haiyu Huang Sun Yat-sen University, Jia Chang Huawei, Jun Li Huawei, Jian Han Huawei
16:00
15m
Talk
Dissecting APKs from Google Play: Trends, Insights and Security Implications
Research Papers
Pedro Jesús Ruiz Jiménez University of Luxembourg, Jordan Samhi University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Tegawendé F. Bissyandé University of Luxembourg, Jacques Klein University of Luxembourg
16:15
15m
Talk
WakeMint: Detecting Sleepminting Vulnerabilities in NFT Smart Contracts
Research Papers
Lei Xiao Sun Yat-sen University, Shuo Yang Sun Yat-sen University, Wen Chen Energy Development Research Institute, China Southern Power Grid Company Limited, Zibin Zheng Sun Yat-sen University
16:30
7m
Talk
On Categorizing Open Source Software Security Vulnerability Reporting Mechanisms on GitHub
Early Research Achievement (ERA) Track
Sushawapak Kancharoendee , Thanat Phichitphanphong , Chanikarn Jongyingyos Mahidol University, Brittany Reid Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Raula Gaikovina Kula Osaka University, Morakot Choetkiertikul Mahidol University, Thailand, Chaiyong Rakhitwetsagul Mahidol University, Thailand, Thanwadee Sunetnanta Mahidol University
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