Application of blockchain technology in securing mobile applications

Abstract

The present era is witnessing rapid development in the smartphone revolution, where mobile users can access many required services through mobile applications. These services include healthcare, finance, learning, insurance, and the Internet of Things. Android has become the most popular smartphone operating system, and this rapidly increasing adoption of Android has led to a significant increase in the number of malware compared to previous years, resulting in issues related to the insecurity of mobile applications and the violation of their users' privacy. A large role in this mobile phone revolution has been played by the emergence of blockchain technology (BCT), which represents an effective way to develop applications, improve their security, and protect the privacy of their users. The aim of this paper is to design a system architecture for the software and provide a prototype that uses BCT at its core for the purpose of storing and sharing malicious data while also integrating a malicious detection technique. We employed the design science research approach to guide our project. Through this approach, we successfully integrated a malware detection technique with BCT in an Android application, resulting in a decentralized feature that enables peers to add and share malware data. Furthermore, we have developed an easy-to-use interface that allows users to interact with the blockchain in the Android application. This interface displays the results of the malware signature detection algorithm and enables users to take appropriate action if malware is detected. We have employed a design science methodology to develop a software framework, and open-source code meeting the tool's requirements has been provided. Finally, the proposed methodology has been evaluated against the existing methodologies and compared with the other techniques to demonstrate the effectiveness of the blockchain-based detection tools.