Question: what exactly does it do, and how?

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

trafficstars

I don't understand some things:

1. Wouldn't the new APK still need user-confirmation to be installed? If not, how, and wouldn't it need to stay with the same permissions?
2. What exactly can you change in the new APK?
3. you say it worked on specific cases. What about other cases? Other devices and Android versions?

[synctext]

ToDo. sorry, we need to clearly link to the arxive paper.. Google: brussee pouwelse arxive.

[AndroidDeveloperLB]

I don't understand.

[du5t]

@AndroidDeveloperLB: the paper http://arxiv.org/pdf/1511.00444v2.pdf

[synctext]

@AndroidDeveloperLB Sorry for the noise. Full answers below.

1. Wouldn't the new APK still need user-confirmation to be installed? If not, how, and wouldn't it need to stay with the same permissions?

Yes, standard install procedure.

1. What exactly can you change in the new APK?

Very simple proof-of-principle, see screenshots below. The app name changes from "browser2" into "calculator". However, this mutation happens at the source code level and in compiled into an .apk

1. you say it worked on specific cases. What about other cases? Other devices and Android versions?

Still very much lab work. No other known cases. Hopefully people are interested in this and want to test it on their devices.

[synctext]

Screenshots:

Changing icon and app name:

First self compile step, process resources

Compile source:

Integrate dependencies:

(this takes a while)

Package app:

Prepare installation step:

The magic happens. Without any user intervention it asks for a freshly compiled clone of itself to be installed.

User selected "install"

Install completed

Finally open the self-compiled clone of itself.