The adoption of smartphones, devices transforming from simple communication devices to smart and multipurpose devices, is constantly increasing. Amongst the main reasons for their vast pervasiveness are their small size, their enhanced functionality, as well as their ability to host many useful and attractive applications. Furthermore, recent studies estimate that application installation in smartphones acquired from official application repositories, such as the Apple Store, will continue to increase. In this context, the official application repositories might become attractive to attackers trying to distribute malware via these repositories. The paper examines the security inefficiencies related to application distribution via application repositories. Our contribution focuses on surveying the application management procedures enforced during application distribution in the popular smartphone platforms (i.e. Android, Black-Berry, Apple iOS, Symbian, Windows Phone), as well as on proposing a scheme for an application management system suited for secure application distribution via application repositories.
['Alexios Mylonas', 'Bill Tsoumas', 'Stelios Dritsas', 'Dimitris Gritzalis']
A secure smartphone applications roll-out scheme