Propagation Analysis of Malware Families in Mobile P2P Networks

Viral propagation modelling acts as sandbox for testing intensity of malware, understand patterns adopted for malware propagation and consequently help device strategies for malware detection. Success of P2P networks has encouraged mobile vendors to offer P2P services on mobile networks. Handheld mobile devices though constrained in memory, power and processing resources are capable of using communication technologies like Bluetooth, MMS, SMS, Infrared and WLAN services. Such versatility has however exposed mobile devices to threats like mobile P2P malware. With the number of mobile phone malware escalating to an alarming figure of more than one thousand, it has become ever more important to analyze the affects of propagation of such malware in the wild that could subsequently act as the baseline for protection against such malware. This paper initially presents propagation analysis of generic mobile P2P malware categories and then provides a detailed analysis of propagation of real-world malware from three malware families accommodating around 100 well known mobile P2P malware. Paper is aimed at providing a much needed insight into propagation characteristics of mobile P2P malware like their propagation speed and battery depletion affect.