Exploring a high-capacity covert channel on the Android operating system

As the use and prevalence of mobile technology increases so too does the importance of effective security for these devices. In particular, sensitive user information must be protected, which includes protecting against any covert channels that would allow such information to be compromised. This paper will examine a new covert channel capable of circumventing existing application-level protections on the Android operating system (OS). The authors will also show that this channel is capable of achieving significantly higher throughput than similar, previously discovered channels, which necessitates the implementation of additional security protections and controls at the operating system level.