Title: A Security Analysis of Smartphones
Department : Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering
About Project: In this thesis we have analyzed smartphone security and have proposed new security model and mechanisms for the smartphone platform, based on privacy, integrity and availability. We analyzed our model, to show it circumvents previously experienced and future foreseeable threats and attacks on the smartphone. We introduced the smartphone and its applications from a security perspective. Speci cally, we emphasized the growing popularity and changing trends in smart phone applications which increase the need for security features protecting user information and identity. Then, we discussed and compared how prevailing smartphone brands address security on their devices. We collected, consolidated and summarized ten categories of smartphone threats and vulnerabilities as witnessed in the smartphone security scene since its inception in the consumer markets. We based the resolvement of these ten threats as the goal for our policies, model and mechanism in the chapters that follow. After that, we briey discussed the existing research focus on enforcing security on smartphones, and we see that almost all works focus on adding security enhancements on top of an existing platform. We distinguished our work as a bottom-up-approach in rede ning a secure smartphone environment, with emphasis on its special applications. We developed security policies which are targeted to address the security shortcomings and need that were previously presented. We used these policies as the basis to develop a formal model de ning how security measures can be systematically built into the system. We also proposed accompanying security mechanisms, which will ensure that all applications and stakeholders and protected. Finally, we analyzed the electiveness of our work in the light of the threats that were discussed. For the future, this work can be expanded by creating and testing a small scale implementation of the model. Though we believe the model is at par with current smartphone performances, through implementing the proposed model and mechanisms the empirical eciency and viability of the design can be tested. Also, a method of faster signature checking, such as elliptic curve cryptography can be added to the model. Lastly, decisions on the precise implementation of our methods which are described at an abstract level need to be made based on various situational, corporate and market factors. Abstract Of Thesis: This work analyzes and discusses the current security environment of today's (and future) smartphones, and proposes a security model which will reduce smartphone vulnerabilities, preserving privacy, integrity and availability of smartphone native applications to authorized parties. For this purpose, we begin with an overlook of current smartphone security standards, and explore the threats, vulnerabilities and attacks on them, that have been uncovered so far with existing popular smartphones. We also look ahead at the future uses of the smartphones, and the security threats that these newer applications would introduce. We use this knowledge to construct a mathematical model, which gives way to policies that should be followed to secure the smartphone under the model. We finally discuss existing and proposed security mechanisms that can be incorporated in the smartphone architecture to meet the set policies, and thus the set security standards.
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