Developing A Testing Framework for Android Content-Providers

Context

There exists several tools to automate the testing of open-source Android applications over the User Interface. However, there is a general lack of tools that can automatically test closed-source Android applications and other main components of an app, such as context-providers. In this project, we want to develop an testing framework that can automatically test closed-source Android applications. The focus will be on implementing testing tools for content providers.

Motivation

Testing closed-source Android applications is important for many use-cases. For instance, security researchers need to test the security of closed-source Android applications to identify malware or vulnerabilities at runtime. So we want to develop a tool that can test Android context-providers using fuzzy testing.

Goal

What do we want to achieve?

• Automating the testing of closed-source Android applications.
• Improving Input Generation for Android Applications.
• Improving the Code Coverage of Android Applications.
• Improving the Bug Detection of Android Applications.

What do we want the student to deliver?

• Develop a novel method to test closed-source Android applications with a focus on context-providers and broadcast-listeners.
• Develop a tool that can automatically test closed-source Android applications.
• Evaluate the tool on a set of closed-source Android applications by measuring code coverage.
• Evaluate the tool on a set of closed-source Android applications by measuring bug detection.
• Comparison with existing tools.

Requirements

What do we want the student to bring to the project?

• Very Good Programming skills in Python and Java
• Interest in Mobile Software Engineering
• Interest in Software Testing

Pointers

What resources and other related work could help the student to work on this project?

•  Dynamic Security Analysis on Android: A Systematic Literature Review
•  AndroLog