Android Secure Storage (Securage)

Abstract

Android usage is on rise ever since its beginning in 2008 [1]. It not only powers smartphones and tablets but also variety of other devices including smartwatches, televisions and medical/health equipment. With ever growing user base, the amount and variety of data handled by Android is increasing. Furthermore the sensitivity of data being stored on Android devices is in- creasing and so is the complexity and sophistication of malwares. Keeping in mind the vast adaption of Android as core operating system, e ects of data theft can be catastrophic. Several le vaults, available in market today, provide means to securely store les but none of them has option to enable users to grant third-party applications access to les. Moreover encryption is done in user-space, which means slower encryption and dependency of access time on le size. Our work focuses on providing secure storage to Android users in the form of an encrypted virtual partition using kernel space encryption. An accompanying application handles storage and retrieval of les and a content provider enables access to third party applications. The system is designed such that data can be moved between variety of operating systems including Windows, Linux etc. Use of encrypted virtual partition to contain data not only ensures secu- rity and portability but also allows user to plausibly deny existence of any such data if he is forced to reveal the contents.