Android Provenance: Diagnosing Device Disorders

Citation

Husted, N., Qureshi, S., Tariq, D., & Gehani, A. (2013, 2-3 April). Android provenance: diagnosing device disorders. Paper presented at the USENIX Workshop on the Theory and Practice of Provenance (TaPP ’13), Lombard, IL.

Abstract

Mobile devices are a ubiquitous part of our daily lives. Smartphones are being used in many areas where data privacy and integrity are a concern. One threat to integrity and privacy is the existence of bugs in operating system code. Little has been done to provide tools for
system-wide runtime profiling and accountability. We propose operating system auditing and data provenance tracking as mechanisms for generating useful traces of system activity and information flow on mobile devices. The goal of these traces is to enable debugging and profiling of complicated system issues such as increased power drain. We contribute a prototype system for Android-based mobile devices and provide realistic examples of how our system can be used for debugging.


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