All your Root Checks are Belong to Us: The sad state of Root detection Nathan Evans Azzedine Benameur Yun Shen Symantec Research Labs Symantec Research Labs Symantec Research Labs Herndon, VA Herndon, VA Dublin USA USA Ireland
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT Categories and Subject Descriptors Today, mobile devices are ubiquitous; a facet of everyday life D.4.6 [Security and Protection ]: [Android Security, Root for most people. Due to increasing computational power, Detection, Library Interposition] these devices are used to perform a large number of tasks, from personal email to corporate expense account manage- ment. It is a hassle for users to be required to maintain 1. INTRODUCTION multiple mobile devices to separate personal and corporate The wide proliferation of smartphones in recent years has activities, but in the past this was a commonplace require- led to a boom in Android (Linux based) mobile devices. An- ment. Today, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) rev- droid is so popular that, as of the end 2014 it was installed olution has promised to consolidate personal and business on over 70% [2] of smartphones and tablets sold globally. applications onto one device for added convenience and to Following the same trend, personal devices penetrated en- reduce costs. As business applications move to personal de- terprises; putting corporate crown jewels alongside personal vices, a clear problem has arisen: how to keep business data applications, data and threats. This led to the wide spread secure and personal data private when they reside on the adoption of Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Bring same device.