Web APIs in Android through the Lens of Security

TL;DR

This paper analyzes Android app web communications to reveal security vulnerabilities, including insecure connections and embedded code, highlighting risks for billions of users and API providers.

Contribution

It introduces a tool for static analysis of web API usage in Android apps and provides a large-scale study of security practices and vulnerabilities.

Findings

Insecure HTTP connections are seven times more common in closed-source apps.

Embedded SQL and JavaScript are used in web communication in over 500 apps.

Developers frequently use java.net and third-party libraries like OkHttp.

Abstract

Web communication has become an indispensable characteristic of mobile apps. However, it is not clear what data the apps transmit, to whom, and what consequences such transmissions have. We analyzed the web communications found in mobile apps from the perspective of security. We first manually studied 160 Android apps to identify the commonly-used communication libraries, and to understand how they are used in these apps. We then developed a tool to statically identify web API URLs used in the apps, and restore the JSON data schemas including the type and value of each parameter. We extracted 9,714 distinct web API URLs that were used in 3,376 apps. We found that developers often use the java.net package for network communication, however, third-party libraries like OkHttp are also used in many apps. We discovered that insecure HTTP connections are seven times more prevalent in closed-source than in open-source apps, and that embedded SQL and JavaScript code is used in web communication in more than 500 different apps. This finding is devastating; it leaves billions of users and API service providers vulnerable to attack.