A Smart Framework for Mobile Botnet Detection Using Static Analysis

Botnets have become one of the most significant threats to Internet-connected smartphones. A botnet is a combination of infected devices communicating through a command server under the control of botmaster for malicious purposes. Nowadays, the number and variety of botnets attacks have increased drastically, especially on the Android platform. Severe network disruptions through massive coordinated attacks result in large financial and ethical losses. The increase in the number of botnet attacks brings the challenges for detection of harmful software. This study proposes a smart framework for mobile botnet detection using static analysis. This technique combines permissions, activities, broadcast receivers, background services, API and uses the machine-learning algorithm to detect mobile botnets applications. The prototype was implemented and used to validate the performance, accuracy, and scalability of the proposed framework by evaluating 3000 android applications. The obtained results show the proposed framework obtained 98.20% accuracy with a low 0.1140 false-positive rate.