Mobile Computing(CS634) Group 15 SMS controlled Security & Life Saving Application on Android

Transcription

1 Mobile Computing(CS634) Group 15 SMS controlled Security & Life Saving Application on Android Amitesh Maheshwari Dept. of CSE Ravi Ranjan Dept. of CSE Supervisor: Dr. R. K. Ghosh Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur Project Report April 13, 2013 Abstract In this project, we have developed a security cum lifesaving application for the Android mobile devices. This project provides the user with various facilities, which can be availed by him/her via any ordinary phone, which has the SMS(messaging) facility. The application provides various security and anti-theft features for the android device. The application, in itself, is also very much secure and provides four level security. As power consumption has always been a major issue with the Android mobiles, so we also kept in mind the power constraints of the device and tried to make the application as efficient and lightweight as possible. 1 Introduction Nowadays, a majority of the world s population use the Android phones or any other kind of smartphones and also, they carry it with them all the time. This mobile phone is so small and powerful that it can also be used for life saving purpose. Moreover, we perform huge amount of monetary transactions via these android phones. In such a scenario, if the phone is lost, then thief can quickly misuse it and put us into deep trouble. Therefore, for such a powerful device, there has to be a powerful and ultrasecure application, which will allow the protection of the user as well as the mobile device. In this project, we have developed such an application, which will provide the user with a variety of secure features without compromising on the efficiency of the Android device. 2 Previuos Work There are applications available in Android market, which cater to the issue of security of Android mobile devices. Examples of such applications are MobileProtect Pro[1] by KloudData, PhoneLocator Pro[2] etc. But, these applications are highly UI oriented, thus consuming a lot of Android battery. They require user registration, thus adding an extra burden for the users. Only one password is allowed in their case, which can be only changed if you have the access to the application on your Android mobile device. Moreover, the messages related to the application are relayed to inbox and sms notification, so an attacker can easily misuse the application. Also, in these applications, any body can uninstall the application, no protection is provided for this. 3 Features and their use cases We have broadly classified the various features of the application into three categories: Remote Call/Contact data access Life Saving Features System Features 1

2 3.1 Remote Call/Contact data access Fetch the contact by name from the phonebook Using this feature, the user can fetch any contact by name stored in the phonebook of his/her Android phone by sending a message from any ordinary mobile phone. It does a partial string matching on the name of the contact sent via SMS and fetches all those contacts. Command- Contact:<person name> Use Cases: Supppose you want to get phone number of a neighbour, which is in your father s mobile phone, but he is not picking up the phone right now, then you can use it. This feature can be very helpful in a company or municipal corporation, where contacts of the employees, clients and services can be stored on any central Android device and users can get whenever they want Fetch a specified number of last incoming calls Using this feature, the user can fetch a certain number of incoming calls on his Android device by sending a message. We send the number of incoming calls to be fetched alongwith the message. Command- Incoming:<number of calls> Fetch a specified number of last outgoing calls Using this feature, the user can fetch a certain number of outgoing calls on his Android device by sending a message. We send the number of outgoing calls to be fetched alongwith the message. Command- Outcoming:<number of calls> Use Cases: Suppose your Android phone is lost and then one can use this command to fetch the recent outgoing calls to know that to which mobile numbers the thief has called from it. This can be very helpful in tracking down the device Fetch a specified number of last missed calls Using this feature, the user can fetch a certain number of missed calls on his Android device by sending a message. We send the number of missed calls to be fetched alongwith the message. Command- Missed:<number of calls> Use Cases: Suppose that you have left your Android phone at home and want to know that who have contacted you during that period, then you can pick up any ordinary phone and sent an SMS query to retrieve a list of last missed calls on your Android. This feature can also be useful incase the android phone is lost. 3.2 Life Saving Features Get the current location of phone Using the feature, one can get the current location of the Android phone by sending a message to it. At the time of the receipt of the query message by the application, if the Internet is working and gps is enabled in the android, then it will fetch the current nearest location of the android by querying the Google Maps API. If the Internet is not working, then it will only send the latituse and longitude of the current phone location. Command- Where Use Cases: Suppose a child is not picking up his/her phone for a long time and the parent is worried sick about him/her, using this command the parent can know his location. Also, if the phone is lost, then we can also use this command to locate the android device Get the nearest hospital from the current phone location Using this feature, one can get the name, address and telephone number of the nearest hospital that is located to that of the current android phone location. Similarly, as above, if the Internet is not working, then it will only send the latituse and longitude of the current phone location. Command- Hospital Use Cases: Suppose the Android phone user is caught in some accident or natural calamity and his/her parents want to know that their child is fine, but is not picking up the phone and Where command is showing the location, which is same as that of the accident, then they can get contact details of the nearby Hospital using the above command, which would be helpful in getting the whereabouts of the child. 2

3 3.2.3 Get the nearest police station from the current phone location Using this feature, one can get the name, address and telephone number of the nearest police station that is located to that of the current android phone location. Similarly, as above, if the Internet is not working, then it will only send the latituse and longitude of the current phone location. Command- Police Use Cases: This command can be used as an antitheft feature like if the android phone is lost, then using this command, we can get the contact details of the nearest police station and can contact them and tell them that phone is lost, which will help in retrieving the mobile phone quickly. Also, it can be used in case of an accident or any natural calamity as in the case of the previous Hospital query. 3.3 System Features Using these features, one can the change the state of the Android mobile device Puts the phone on silent mode Using this feature, one can put his Android phone into silent by sending an SMS command to it. Command- Silent Use Cases: Suppose you have left your Android phone at a place, where if it rings, it would create disturbance for the others and problems for you, but you cannot go to that place immediately, so this command, in such scenario, would prove to be very handy for you Makes the phone ring even if silent or vibrating mode Using this feature, one can make his Android phone ring at full volume by sending an SMS command to it. Once the mobile phone starts ringing, it will not stop until one cycle of its ringtone finishes, no matter what button you press on the mobile. Command- Ring Use Cases: Suppose you have kept your phone and forgot and also, it is currently in silent mode, then via this command, you can find your android phone by making it ring. Suppose your android device is stolen and thief has put it in silent mode, but you know that it is currently in the same room with you, then you can expose the thief by using this command. Also, he will not be able to do anything, as it would continue ringing until its cycle has finished Locks the phone if currently not locked without changing the current lock password Using this feature, the Android phone user can lock his phone as soon as the application receives the SMS corresponding to this command. It does not require the lock to be enabled in the android phone, but requires that a lock password be previously set on it. Since, this feature is a very much secured feature, so we do not want any user to get access of this feature. Therefore, this feature compulsarily requires a SMS password to be sent alogwith the query SMS. Command- <sms password>#locknow Use Cases: This feature can be used, in the case, if the phone is lost and you want your phone and its personal data to be protected from the thief, then we can lock the android phone then and there, by sending the above command to it Changes the lock password of the phone Using this command, the user can change the lock password of his/her android mobile phone. It does not require the lock to be enabled in the android phone and also does not require that a lock password be previously set on the phone. Also, this is a secured feature, so it compulsarily requires a SMS password to be sent alogwith the query SMS. Command- <sms password>#lock:<new password> Use Cases: This feature can be used, in the case, if the phone is lost and you want your phone and its personal data to be protected from the thief and in case, you doubt that he might be aware of the lock password of your android phone, then we can change its lock password and also lock the android phone then and there, by sending the above command to it Restores the phone to the factory settings Using this phone, the user can restore your Android phone to the factory settings. Since, this feature is an ultimate security feature, so it requires the SMS password as well as 3

4 the master password to be sent alongwith the query message. Command- <sms password>#wipe:<master password> Use Cases: This feature provides ultimate security of the personal data and contacts of your phone, if you do not want to take any risks. In that scenario, this feature provides the facility to restore the Android phone to its factory settings. This makes the phone completely useless for the thief. Another system feature of the application is that it is boot complete i.e. the application starts running on its own, when the phone is started. So, if a message is sent to it, when the phone was switched off, then the application will service the query requests, when it comes to power. 4 Application Security Such an application is not of much use, if it is not secure and cannot protect itself from outside attckers. To counter such attacks, we have provided 4-level security in the application. There is only one entry point to the settings of application restricted by the master password, so no one without having the master password can tamper with the settings of the application. There is facility to set SMS password. On setting it, the application serves only those queries, which come alongwith the SMS password. We have also provided flexibility to the user, so that he can enable or disable SMS password, depending upon his needs. Keeping all these passwords are useless if the app related messages go to the inbox of the receiving Android phone, in such a case, others can misuse the application. So, in to tackle this, the application prevents the broadcast of the application specific messages to other apps like inbox and sms notification. ChangePwd:<master password>:<new password> Moreover, the user can specify some specific numbers, which forces the app to service the requests if queries come from these numbers only. 5 Application Efficiency It is a fact that the Android mobile devices consume a lot of power. So, the battery can drain out pretty quickly, if runs a highly CPU-oriented application. This application has been developed keeping in mind the power constraints associated with the Android phones. Since, the entire application is a broadcast receiver, so it wakes up only when a new SMS arrives. If the message does not belong one of the application related messages, then it goes to sleep again. Otherwise, it fires an appropriate light-weight IntentService which terminates itself automatically once the task is complete. Moreover, there is no Data cache, and application data is only 4 KB. References [1] [2] rvo.plpro&feature=search result [3] /BroadcastReceiver.html [4] Also, if the thief knows that such an application is installed on the phone, then also he will not able to uninstall it, as it can be only be uninstalled on providing the master password. Also, we have provided the facility to change the SMS password by sending a message from an ordinary mobile. It requires the master password to sent alongwith the command and the corresponding command is: 4

5 Figure 1: App cannot be uninstalled as uninstall button is disabled, need to enter master password to unistall Figure 2: App can be uninstalled 5

6 Figure 3: SMS password is not enabled in the application Figure 4: App flexibility to select/deselect different features 6