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New York Times demonstrated an inherent flaw with the Android permission system by
building an app that was able to access photos stored on an Android phone and copy them to a remote server. To accomplish
that, the app needed only permission to access the Internet.
Though app permissions are by no means clear, you can look for a couple of red flags. Almost every app asks for
access to the Internet (usually for ads), but very few should request permission to access your phone calls or your messages.
A malicious app with permission to make calls or send messages can cost you big by dialing certain phone numbers or by
sending out premium text messages without your knowledge.
While two permissions can be harmless when granted separately, the privacy and security risk can increase drastically
if they are granted together. As an example, take the INTERNET and READ SMS permissions; separately they are
harmless, but combined with each other you get an application that can read your text messages and send the contents to a
third party. There are many permission combinations that carry severe risks but are not presented as such to the user. A
study can be performed considering these risks, using the information presented in this thesis as a starting point.
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