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H-Binder: A hardened binder framework on Android systems
Security and privacy in communication networks: 12th International Conference, SecureComm 2016, Guangzhou, China, October 10-12, Proceedings
  • Dong SHEN, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Beihang University)
  • Zhangkai ZHANG, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Beihang University)
  • Xuhua DING, Singapore Management University
  • Zhoujun LI, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Beihang University)
  • Robert H. DENG, Singapore Management University
Publication Type
Conference Proceeding Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
1-2017
Abstract

The Binder framework is at the core of Android systems due to its fundamental role for interprocess communications. Applications use the Binder to perform high level tasks such as accessing location information. The importance of the Binder makes it an attractive target for attackers. Rootkits on Android platforms can arbitrarily access any Binder transaction data and therefore have system-wide security impact. In this paper, we propose H-Binder to secure the Binder IPC channel between two applications. It runs transparently with Android and COTS applications without making changes on their binaries. In this work, we design a bare-metal ARM hypervisor with a tiny code base at runtime. The hypervisor interposes on the main steps of a Binder transaction by leveraging ARM hardware virtualization techniques. It protects secrecy and integrity of the Binder transaction data. We have implemented a prototype of the H-Binder hypervisor and tested its performance. The experiment results show that H-Binder incurs an insignificant overhead to the applications.

Keywords
  • Android,
  • Binder,
  • Virtualization,
  • ARM,
  • System security,
  • Hypervisor
ISBN
9783319596082
Identifier
10.1007/978-3-319-59608-2_2
Publisher
Springer
City or Country
Cham
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59608-2_2
Citation Information
Dong SHEN, Zhangkai ZHANG, Xuhua DING, Zhoujun LI, et al.. "H-Binder: A hardened binder framework on Android systems" Security and privacy in communication networks: 12th International Conference, SecureComm 2016, Guangzhou, China, October 10-12, Proceedings Vol. 198 (2017) p. 24 - 43
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/robert-deng/89/