H-binder: A hardened binder framework on android systems

  • Dong Shen
  • , Zhangkai Zhang
  • , Xuhua Ding
  • , Zhoujun Li*
  • , Robert Deng
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

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.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSecurity and Privacy in Communication Networks -12th International Conference, SecureComm 2016, Proceedings
EditorsRobert Deng, Vinod Yegneswaran, Jian Weng, Kui Ren
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages24-43
Number of pages20
ISBN (Print)9783319596075
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017
Event12th EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks, SecureComm 2016 - Guangzhou, China
Duration: 10 Oct 201612 Oct 2016

Publication series

NameLecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, LNICST
Volume198 LNICST
ISSN (Print)1867-8211

Conference

Conference12th EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks, SecureComm 2016
Country/TerritoryChina
CityGuangzhou
Period10/10/1612/10/16

Keywords

  • ARM
  • Android
  • Binder
  • Hypervisor
  • System security
  • Virtualization

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