Mahmoud Elhaddad

11 papers A 4B 1C 1Misc 2Journal 3
YearRankTypeTitle / Venue / Authors
2025 A conf
SC
Mikhail Khalilov, Siyuan Shen, Marcin Chrapek, Tiancheng Chen, Kenji Nakano, Nicola Mazzoletti, Peter-Jan Gootzen, Salvatore Di Girolamo, Rami Nudelman, Gil Bloch, Jithin Jose, Abdul Kabbani, Sreevatsa Anantharamu, Jie Zhang, Konstantin Taranov, Zhuolong Yu, Scott Moe, Mahmoud Elhaddad, Torsten Hoefler
2025 J jnl
CoRR
Mikhail Khalilov, Siyuan Shen, Marcin Chrapek, Tiancheng Chen, Kenji Nakano, Peter-Jan Gootzen, Salvatore Di Girolamo, Rami Nudelman, Gil Bloch, Sreevatsa Anantharamu, Mahmoud Elhaddad, Jithin Jose, Abdul Kabbani, Scott Moe, Konstantin Taranov, Zhuolong Yu, Jie Zhang, Nicola Mazzoletti, Torsten Hoefler
2025 A conf
SC
Tommaso Bonato, Sepehr Abdous, Abdul Kabbani, Ahmad Ghalayini, Nadeen Gebara, Terry Lam, Anup Agarwal, Tiancheng Chen, Zhuolong Yu, Konstantin Taranov, Mahmoud Elhaddad, Daniele De Sensi, Soudeh Ghorbani, Torsten Hoefler
2025 J jnl
CoRR
Tommaso Bonato, Sepehr Abdous, Abdul Kabbani, Ahmad Ghalayini, Nadeen Gebara, Terry Lam, Anup Agarwal, Tiancheng Chen, Zhuolong Yu, Konstantin Taranov, Mahmoud Elhaddad, Daniele De Sensi, Soudeh Ghorbani, Torsten Hoefler
2023 Misc conf
NSDI
Wei Bai, Shanim Sainul Abdeen, Ankit Agrawal, Krishan Kumar Attre, Paramvir Bahl, Ameya Bhagat, Gowri Bhaskara, Tanya Brokhman, Lei Cao, Ahmad Cheema, Rebecca Chow, Jeff Cohen, Mahmoud Elhaddad, Vivek Ette, Igal Figlin, Daniel Firestone, Mathew George, Ilya German, Lakhmeet Ghai, Eric Green, Albert G. Greenberg, Manish Gupta, Randy Haagens, Matthew Hendel, Ridwan Howlader, Neetha John, Julia Johnstone, Tom Jolly, Greg Kramer, David Kruse, Ankit Kumar, Erica Lan, Ivan Lee, Avi Levy, Marina Lipshteyn, Xin Liu, Chen Liu, Guohan Lu, Yuemin Lu, Xiakun Lu, Vadim Makhervaks, Ulad Malashanka, David A. Maltz, Ilias Marinos, Rohan Mehta, Sharda Murthi, Anup Namdhari, Aaron Ogus, Jitendra Padhye, Madhav Pandya, Douglas Phillips, Adrian Power, Suraj Puri, Shachar Raindel, Jordan Rhee, Anthony Russo, Maneesh Sah, Ali Sheriff, Chris Sparacino, Ashutosh Srivastava, Weixiang Sun, Nick Swanson, Fuhou Tian, Lukasz Tomczyk, Vamsi Vadlamuri, Alec Wolman, Ying Xie, Joyce Yom, Lihua Yuan, Yanzhao Zhang, Brian Zill
2023 Misc conf
NSDI
Xinhao Kong, Jingrong Chen, Wei Bai, Yechen Xu, Mahmoud Elhaddad, Shachar Raindel, Jitendra Padhye, Alvin R. Lebeck, Danyang Zhuo
2008 A conf
DISC
Mahmoud Elhaddad, Rami G. Melhem
2007 A conf
ICDCS
Mahmoud Elhaddad, Hammad Iqbal, Taieb Znati, Rami G. Melhem
2006 J jnl
SIGMETRICS Perform. Evaluation Rev.
Mahmoud Elhaddad, Rami G. Melhem, Taieb Znati
2006 B conf
IWQoS
Mahmoud Elhaddad, Rami G. Melhem, Taieb Znati
2004 C conf
BROADNETS
Mahmoud Elhaddad, Rami G. Melhem, Taieb Znati
redb/extractors/apk_extractors/apk_resources.py
← Index redb/extractors/apk_extractors/apk_resources.py python
import hashlib
import inspect
import os
from datetime import datetime, timezone
from typing import Any

from redb.extractors.enum import Tag
from redb.extractors.apk_extractor import APKExtractor
from redb.models.dataclasses import APKResource


# ─── Suspicious file types ──────────────────────────────────────────────
# File types that are suspicious when found inside res/ or assets/.
# Excludes javascript/html (extremely common in legitimate hybrid apps)
# and common media/font types that are normal APK content.
SUSPICIOUS_TYPES = {
    # Executables — no legitimate reason in assets/res
    "elf", "pebin", "macho", "dex", "apk",
    # Java containers — DexClassLoader target
    "jar",
    # Archives — rare in legitimate assets (~135:1 malware-to-benign ratio)
    "zip", "gzip", "7z", "xz", "tar", "bzip2", "rar", "7zip", "lzma",
    # Scripts with system execution capability
    "shell", "python", "powershell", "batch",
}

# ─── Entropy thresholds ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
# For unrecognized/unknown types: encrypted payloads typically land > 7.0
ENTROPY_HIGH_UNKNOWN = 7.0
# For recognized-but-non-image types: stricter threshold
ENTROPY_EXTREME = 7.85

# ─── Android-specific binary format magic bytes ─────────────────────────
# These formats are common in legitimate APKs but unknown to Magika,
# causing misclassification (e.g., AXML → "gzip", profm → "unknown").
AXML_MAGIC = b'\x03\x00\x08\x00'       # Android Binary XML (compiled res/*.xml)
ARSC_MAGIC = b'\x02\x00\x0c\x00'       # Android compiled resource table
ART_PROF_MAGIC = b'pro\x00'            # ART baseline profile
ART_PROFM_MAGIC = b'prm\x00'           # ART baseline profile metadata

# ─── Allowlisted paths ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
# Fixed, hardcoded paths in the Android build system that are always benign.
# ART profiles at these exact paths are shipped by Jetpack ProfileInstaller.
ALLOWLISTED_PATHS = {
    "assets/dexopt/baseline.prof",
    "assets/dexopt/baseline.profm",
}

# ─── Image handling ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
# Magika-confirmed image types: high entropy is expected (lossy codecs
# like VP8/JPEG arithmetic-code toward entropy ~7.95-8.0 by design).
IMAGE_MAGIKA_TYPES = {"png", "webp", "jpeg", "gif", "bmp", "tiff", "ico"}
IMAGE_EXTENSIONS = {".png", ".webp", ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".gif", ".bmp", ".tiff", ".ico"}

# ─── Types Magika assigns when it can't identify the content ────────────
UNRECOGNIZED_MAGIKA_TYPES = {"unknown", "empty"}

# ─── Resource scan limits ───────────────────────────────────────────────
MAX_RESOURCE_FILES = 5000


class APKResourceExtractor(APKExtractor):

    def __init__(
        self, filepath, log, exporters=None, index_prefix=None,
        known_benign=False, known_malicious=False,
        apk=None,
    ):
        super().__init__(
            filepath, log, exporters, index_prefix,
            known_benign, known_malicious, apk,
        )
        self.resources = []
        self.suspicious_files = []
        self.log.debug(inspect.currentframe().f_code.co_name)

    def tag(self):
        return Tag.APK_RESOURCES.value

    # ─── Core classification logic ──────────────────────────────────────

    def _identify_android_format(self, header: bytes) -> str | None:
        """
        Identify Android-specific binary formats that Magika doesn't know.
        Returns a corrected type label, or None to fall through to Magika.
        """
        if len(header) < 4:
            return None

        magic4 = header[:4]

        # Android Binary XML — all res/*.xml in a compiled APK.
        # Magika often misclassifies this as "gzip".
        if magic4 == AXML_MAGIC:
            return "android_binary_xml"

        # Android compiled resource table (resources.arsc chunks)
        if magic4 == ARSC_MAGIC:
            return "android_resource_table"

        # ART baseline profiles — high entropy (zlib inside) but benign.
        # The format is inert (method reference bitmaps/metadata, not
        # executable code) and some build configs place them at varying paths.
        if magic4 == ART_PROF_MAGIC:
            return "android_art_profile"
        if magic4 == ART_PROFM_MAGIC:
            return "android_art_profile_metadata"

        return None

    def _is_suspicious_resource(
        self, path: str, magika_type: str, entropy: float,
        android_type: str | None,
    ) -> bool:
        """
        Determine if a resource file is suspicious.

        Detection layers:
        1. Allowlisted paths → always benign
        2. Android-specific format override → reclassify Magika mislabels
        3. Image extension vs Magika type mismatch → encrypted blob detection
        4. Magika-confirmed images → benign regardless of entropy
        5. Suspicious type match → flag known-dangerous types
        6. High-entropy unknown blobs → likely encrypted payloads
        """

        # ── Layer 1: Allowlisted paths (hardcoded Android build artifacts) ──
        if path in ALLOWLISTED_PATHS:
            return False

        # ── Layer 2: Android-specific format detection ──────────────────────
        # Override Magika's label for formats it doesn't recognize.
        # All Android-specific formats (AXML, ARSC, ART profiles) are
        # legitimate build artifacts — never suspicious.
        if android_type is not None:
            return False

        # ── Layer 3: Image extension / Magika type mismatch ─────────────────
        # If the file extension claims "image" but Magika's content analysis
        # disagrees, this is a strong signal for an encrypted payload with
        # a fake image extension (e.g., ErrorFather's "rbyypivsnw.png").
        ext = os.path.splitext(path)[1].lower()
        if ext in IMAGE_EXTENSIONS and magika_type not in IMAGE_MAGIKA_TYPES:
            # Exception: Magika might label a valid image as "unknown" if
            # the file is very small (< ~16 bytes). Don't flag tiny files.
            if entropy > 5.0:
                return True

        # ── Layer 4: Magika-confirmed images → benign ───────────────────────
        # Lossy codecs (VP8, JPEG) produce entropy up to ~8.0 by design.
        # If Magika confirms image structure, high entropy is expected.
        if magika_type in IMAGE_MAGIKA_TYPES:
            return False

        # ── Layer 5: Known suspicious file types ────────────────────────────
        if magika_type in SUSPICIOUS_TYPES:
            return True

        # ── Layer 6: High-entropy unrecognized blobs ────────────────────────
        # Files Magika can't identify with high entropy are likely encrypted
        # payloads. Most Android malware packers store encrypted DEX/SO
        # payloads as opaque blobs with random names and no valid magic.
        if magika_type in UNRECOGNIZED_MAGIKA_TYPES and entropy > ENTROPY_HIGH_UNKNOWN:
            return True

        # ── Layer 7: Extreme entropy on any non-image recognized type ───────
        # Catches edge cases where Magika assigns a benign label (e.g.,
        # "xml", "txt") but the entropy is impossibly high for that format.
        if magika_type not in IMAGE_MAGIKA_TYPES and entropy > ENTROPY_EXTREME:
            return True

        return False

    # ─── Extraction pipeline ────────────────────────────────────────────

    def extract(self):
        if not self._is_valid_apk():
            self.log.error(f"Invalid APK for {self.hash.sha256}")
            return None

        try:
            from magika import Magika
            magika = Magika()
        except Exception as e:
            self.log.error(f"Failed to initialize Magika for {self.hash.sha256}: {e}")
            magika = None

        self.resources = []
        self.suspicious_files = []
        scanned = 0

        zf = self._get_zip_file()
        if not zf:
            return None

        with zf:
            for info in zf.infolist():
                if info.is_dir():
                    continue
                if not (info.filename.startswith("res/") or
                        info.filename.startswith("assets/")):
                    continue

                if scanned >= MAX_RESOURCE_FILES:
                    self.log.warning(
                        f"Resource scan limit reached ({MAX_RESOURCE_FILES}), "
                        f"stopping resource enumeration"
                    )
                    break
                scanned += 1

                try:
                    data = zf.read(info.filename)
                except Exception as e:
                    self.log.warning(
                        f"Error reading resource {info.filename}: {e}"
                    )
                    continue

                try:
                    file_sha256 = hashlib.sha256(data).hexdigest()
                    file_entropy = round(self.calculate_entropy(data), 3)

                    # Read first bytes for Android-specific format detection
                    header = data[:16] if len(data) >= 16 else data

                    if magika:
                        try:
                            filetype = magika.identify_bytes(data).output.label
                        except Exception:
                            filetype = "unknown"
                    else:
                        filetype = "unknown"

                    # Identify Android-specific formats once, reuse for
                    # both stored type and suspicion classification
                    android_type = self._identify_android_format(header)
                    stored_type = android_type if android_type else filetype

                    suspicious = self._is_suspicious_resource(
                        path=info.filename,
                        magika_type=filetype,
                        entropy=file_entropy,
                        android_type=android_type,
                    )

                    resource = APKResource(
                        path=info.filename,
                        size=info.file_size,
                        sha256=file_sha256,
                        filetype_magika=stored_type,
                        entropy=file_entropy,
                    )

                    if suspicious:
                        resource.is_suspicious = True
                        self.suspicious_files.append(resource)

                    self.resources.append(resource)
                except Exception as e:
                    self.log.warning(
                        f"Error processing resource {info.filename}: {e}"
                    )
                    continue

        if not self.resources:
            return None

        return {
            "total_resource_count": len(self.resources),
            "total_resource_size": sum(r.size for r in self.resources),
            "suspicious_file_count": len(self.suspicious_files),
            "resources": self.resources,
            "suspicious_files": self.suspicious_files,
        }

    # ─── Export ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

    def prepare_export_data(self, exporter_type: str) -> Any:
        if exporter_type == "ClickHouseExporter":
            if not self.resources:
                return None

            current_time = datetime.now(timezone.utc)
            data = []
            for res in self.resources:
                data.append([
                    self.sha256,
                    res.path,
                    res.size,
                    res.sha256,
                    res.filetype_magika,
                    res.entropy,
                    int(res.is_suspicious),
                    current_time,
                ])

            column_names = [
                'sha256', 'resource_path', 'resource_size',
                'resource_sha256', 'resource_magika', 'resource_entropy',
                'is_suspicious', 'analysis_date',
            ]

            column_type_names = [
                'FixedString(64)', 'String', 'UInt64',
                'FixedString(64)', 'LowCardinality(String)', 'Float32',
                'UInt8', "DateTime64(3, 'UTC')",
            ]

            return (data, column_names, column_type_names)

    def get_clickhouse_table(self) -> str:
        return "redb_apk_resources"