How Did That Get In My Phone? Unwanted App Distribution on Android Devices
Platon Kotzias, Juan Caballero, Leyla Bilge

TL;DR
This study investigates how unwanted apps, including malware and PUP, are distributed across Android devices through various vectors, revealing the prevalence, sources, and risks associated with each distribution method.
Contribution
It provides a comprehensive analysis of unwanted app distribution channels on Android, quantifying their impact and comparing their prevalence and security defenses.
Findings
10-24% of devices encounter unwanted apps
Play Store accounts for 87% of app installs, 67% of unwanted apps
Web downloads, though rare, pose higher risks
Abstract
Android is the most popular operating system with billions of active devices. Unfortunately, its popularity and openness makes it attractive for unwanted apps, i.e., malware and potentially unwanted programs (PUP). In Android, app installations typically happen via the official and alternative markets, but also via other smaller and less understood alternative distribution vectors such as Web downloads, pay-per-install (PPI) services, backup restoration, bloatware, and IM tools. This work performs a thorough investigation on unwanted app distribution by quantifying and comparing distribution through different vectors. At the core of our measurements are reputation logs of a large security vendor, which include 7.9M apps observed in 12M devices between June and September 2019. As a first step, we measure that between 10% and 24% of users devices encounter at least one unwanted app, and…
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