Improving Security for Android Smartphones

The Aerospace Corporation Computer Science, 2011-12

Liaison(s): Joseph Betser, Jandria Alexander, John Nilles, Peter Reiher, Luke Florer, Adam Jackson
Advisor(s): Geoff Kuenning
Students(s): Kathryn Lingel (PM-F), Steve Matsumoto, Oliver Ortlieb, Adam Cozzette (PM-S)

As smartphones become more widespread and powerful, they are becoming a more common target for attacks and malware. To help address these growing security threats, we are building a defense mechanism that strengthens the security of Android-based smartphones by making it more difficult for malicious applications to interfere with the communications of other applications. In particular, we are modifying the Android source code to better handle messages sent between applications and testing our defense on both simulated and real-life applications.