Rootkits on smart phones: attacks, implications and opportunities

Smart phones are increasingly being equipped with operating systems that compare in complexity with those on desktop computers. This trend makes smart phone operating systems vulnerable to many of the same threats as desktop operating systems. In this paper, we focus on the threat posed by smart phone rootkits. Rootkits are malware that stealthily modify operating system code and data to achieve malicious goals, and have long been a problem for desktops. We use three example rootkits to show that smart phones are just as vulnerable to rootkits as desktop operating systems. However, the ubiquity of smart phones and the unique interfaces that they expose, such as voice, GPS and battery, make the social consequences of rootkits particularly devastating. We conclude the paper by identifying the challenges that need to be addressed to effectively detect rootkits on smart phones.