Mai ElSherief

42 papers A* 3A 6Journal 20Unranked 12
YearRankTypeTitle / Venue / Authors
2026 J jnl
CoRR
Nazanin Sabri, Ananya Malik, Bangzhao Shu, Jason Snyder, Laurie Kramer, Mai ElSherief
2025 conf
FAccT
Cass Mayeda, Arinjay Singh, Arnav Mahale, Laila Shereen Sakr, Mai ElSherief
2025 conf
EMNLP (Findings)
Ananya Malik, Nazanin Sabri, Melissa Karnaze, Mai ElSherief
2025 J jnl
CoRR
Ananya Malik, Nazanin Sabri, Melissa Karnaze, Mai ElSherief
2025 J jnl
CoRR
Shravika Mittal, Darshi Shah, Shin Won Do, Mai ElSherief, Tanushree Mitra, Munmun De Choudhury
2025 J jnl
CoRR
Bangzhao Shu, Isha Joshi, Melissa Karnaze, Anh C. Pham, Ishita Kakkar, Sindhu Kothe, Arpine Hovasapian, Mai ElSherief
2025 A conf
ICWSM
Tanmay Laud, Akadia Kacha-Ochana, Steven A. Sumner, Vikram Krishnasamy, Royal Law, Lyna Schieber, Munmun De Choudhury, Mai ElSherief
2025 J jnl
CoRR
Tanmay Laud, Akadia Kacha-Ochana, Steven A. Sumner, Vikram Krishnasamy, Royal Law, Lyna Schieber, Munmun De Choudhury, Mai ElSherief
2025 A conf
ICWSM
Shravika Mittal, Hayoung Jung, Mai ElSherief, Tanushree Mitra, Munmun De Choudhury
2025 J jnl
CoRR
Nazanin Sabri, Mai ElSherief
2025 J jnl
Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact.
Nazanin Sabri, Yutong Chen, Marissa Lee, Steven P. Dow, Kristen Vaccaro, Mai ElSherief
2025 J jnl
IEEE Secur. Priv.
Nazanin Sabri, Kristen Vaccaro, Mai ElSherief
2023 A* conf
CHI
Nazanin Sabri, Bella Chen, Annabelle Teoh, Steven P. Dow, Kristen Vaccaro, Mai ElSherief
2021 conf
EMNLP (1)
Mai ElSherief, Caleb Ziems, David Muchlinski, Vaishnavi Anupindi, Jordyn Seybolt, Munmun De Choudhury, Diyi Yang
2021 J jnl
CoRR
Mai ElSherief, Caleb Ziems, David Muchlinski, Vaishnavi Anupindi, Jordyn Seybolt, Munmun De Choudhury, Diyi Yang
2021 conf
NAACL-HLT
Jing Qian, Hong Wang, Mai ElSherief, Xifeng Yan
2021 J jnl
CoRR
Jing Qian, Hong Wang, Mai ElSherief, Xifeng Yan
2020 conf
WebSci
Savvas Zannettou, Mai ElSherief, Elizabeth M. Belding, Shirin Nilizadeh, Gianluca Stringhini
2020 J jnl
CoRR
Savvas Zannettou, Mai ElSherief, Elizabeth M. Belding, Shirin Nilizadeh, Gianluca Stringhini
2020 A* conf
ACL
Andrew Gaut, Tony Sun, Shirlyn Tang, Yuxin Huang, Jing Qian, Mai ElSherief, Jieyu Zhao, Diba Mirza, Elizabeth M. Belding, Kai-Wei Chang, William Yang Wang
2019
Mai ElSherief
2019 conf
NAACL-HLT (1)
Jing Qian, Mai ElSherief, Elizabeth M. Belding, William Yang Wang
2019 J jnl
CoRR
Jing Qian, Mai ElSherief, Elizabeth M. Belding, William Yang Wang
2019 conf
ACL (1)
Tony Sun, Andrew Gaut, Shirlyn Tang, Yuxin Huang, Mai ElSherief, Jieyu Zhao, Diba Mirza, Elizabeth M. Belding, Kai-Wei Chang, William Yang Wang
2019 J jnl
CoRR
Tony Sun, Andrew Gaut, Shirlyn Tang, Yuxin Huang, Mai ElSherief, Jieyu Zhao, Diba Mirza, Elizabeth M. Belding, Kai-Wei Chang, William Yang Wang
2019 J jnl
CoRR
Andrew Gaut, Tony Sun, Shirlyn Tang, Yuxin Huang, Jing Qian, Mai ElSherief, Jieyu Zhao, Diba Mirza, Elizabeth M. Belding, Kai-Wei Chang, William Yang Wang
2018 A conf
ICWSM
Mai ElSherief, Vivek Kulkarni, Dana Nguyen, William Yang Wang, Elizabeth M. Belding
2018 J jnl
CoRR
Mai ElSherief, Vivek Kulkarni, Dana Nguyen, William Yang Wang, Elizabeth M. Belding
2018 A* conf
EMNLP
Jing Qian, Mai ElSherief, Elizabeth M. Belding, William Yang Wang
2018 J jnl
CoRR
Jing Qian, Mai ElSherief, Elizabeth M. Belding, William Yang Wang
2018 conf
NAACL-HLT (2)
Jing Qian, Mai ElSherief, Elizabeth M. Belding, William Yang Wang
2018 J jnl
CoRR
Jing Qian, Mai ElSherief, Elizabeth M. Belding, William Yang Wang
2018 A conf
ICWSM
Mai ElSherief, Shirin Nilizadeh, Dana Nguyen, Giovanni Vigna, Elizabeth M. Belding
2018 J jnl
CoRR
Mai ElSherief, Shirin Nilizadeh, Dana Nguyen, Giovanni Vigna, Elizabeth M. Belding
2017 A conf
ICWSM
Mai ElSherief, Elizabeth M. Belding, Dana Nguyen
2017 J jnl
Pervasive Mob. Comput.
Mai ElSherief, Babak Alipour, Mimonah Al Qathrady, Tamer A. ElBatt, Ahmed H. Zahran, Ahmed Helmy
2017 conf
CrowdSenSys@SenSys
Mai ElSherief, Morgan Vigil-Hayes, Ramya Raghavendra, Elizabeth M. Belding
2015 conf
SmartCity
Mai ElSherief, Tamer A. ElBatt, Ahmed H. Zahran, Ahmed Helmy
2015 J jnl
CoRR
Mai ElSherief, Tamer A. ElBatt, Ahmed H. Zahran, Ahmed Helmy
2015 conf
UrbanGIS@SIGSPATIAL
Mai ElSherief, Elizabeth M. Belding
2014 conf
PerCom Workshops
Mai ElSherief, Tamer A. ElBatt, Ahmed H. Zahran, Ahmed Helmy
2013 A conf
MobiSys
Mai ElSherief, Tamer A. ElBatt, Ahmed H. Zahran, Ahmed Helmy
redb/extractors/apk_extractors/apk_dex.py
← Index redb/extractors/apk_extractors/apk_dex.py python
import hashlib
import inspect
import json
from collections import Counter
from datetime import datetime, timezone
from typing import Any

import tlsh

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

# Sensitive API patterns categorized for malware analysis
SENSITIVE_API_CATEGORIES = {
    "reflection": [
        "Ljava/lang/reflect/Method;->invoke",
        "Ljava/lang/reflect/Field;->get",
        "Ljava/lang/reflect/Field;->set",
        "Ljava/lang/reflect/Constructor;->newInstance",
        "Ljava/lang/Class;->forName",
        "Ljava/lang/Class;->getMethod",
        "Ljava/lang/Class;->getDeclaredMethod",
        "Ljava/lang/Class;->getDeclaredField",
        "Ljava/lang/ClassLoader;->loadClass",
    ],
    "crypto": [
        "Ljavax/crypto/Cipher;->getInstance",
        "Ljavax/crypto/Cipher;->init",
        "Ljavax/crypto/spec/SecretKeySpec;-><init>",
        "Ljavax/crypto/spec/IvParameterSpec;-><init>",
        "Ljava/security/MessageDigest;->getInstance",
        "Ljava/security/KeyStore;->getInstance",
        "Ljavax/crypto/Mac;->getInstance",
    ],
    "dynamic_loading": [
        "Ldalvik/system/DexClassLoader;-><init>",
        "Ldalvik/system/PathClassLoader;-><init>",
        "Ldalvik/system/InMemoryDexClassLoader;-><init>",
        "Ldalvik/system/BaseDexClassLoader;-><init>",
        "Ljava/lang/Runtime;->exec",
        "Ljava/lang/ProcessBuilder;->start",
    ],
    "telephony": [
        "Landroid/telephony/TelephonyManager;->getDeviceId",
        "Landroid/telephony/TelephonyManager;->getSubscriberId",
        "Landroid/telephony/TelephonyManager;->getLine1Number",
        "Landroid/telephony/TelephonyManager;->getSimSerialNumber",
        "Landroid/telephony/TelephonyManager;->getNetworkOperator",
        "Landroid/telephony/TelephonyManager;->getSimOperator",
    ],
    "sms": [
        "Landroid/telephony/SmsManager;->sendTextMessage",
        "Landroid/telephony/SmsManager;->sendMultipartTextMessage",
        "Landroid/telephony/SmsManager;->sendDataMessage",
    ],
    "network": [
        "Ljava/net/HttpURLConnection;->connect",
        "Ljava/net/URL;->openConnection",
        "Lokhttp3/OkHttpClient;-><init>",
        "Lokhttp3/Request$Builder;->build",
        "Lorg/apache/http/client/HttpClient;->execute",
        "Landroid/webkit/WebView;->loadUrl",
        "Landroid/webkit/WebView;->setWebViewClient",
    ],
    "native": [
        "Ljava/lang/System;->loadLibrary",
        "Ljava/lang/System;->load",
        "Ljava/lang/Runtime;->loadLibrary",
    ],
    "device_info": [
        "Landroid/os/Build;->FINGERPRINT",
        "Landroid/os/Build;->MODEL",
        "Landroid/os/Build;->MANUFACTURER",
        "Landroid/os/Build;->PRODUCT",
        "Landroid/os/Build;->BRAND",
        "Landroid/os/Build;->DEVICE",
        "Landroid/os/Build;->HARDWARE",
        "Landroid/os/Build;->SERIAL",
        "Landroid/os/Build$VERSION;->SDK_INT",
        "Landroid/provider/Settings$Secure;->getString",
    ],
    "file_io": [
        "Ljava/io/FileOutputStream;-><init>",
        "Ljava/io/FileInputStream;-><init>",
        "Landroid/content/SharedPreferences;->edit",
        "Landroid/database/sqlite/SQLiteDatabase;->execSQL",
        "Landroid/database/sqlite/SQLiteDatabase;->rawQuery",
    ],
    "ipc": [
        "Landroid/content/ContentResolver;->query",
        "Landroid/content/ContentResolver;->insert",
        "Landroid/content/ContentResolver;->delete",
        "Landroid/content/Intent;-><init>",
        "Landroid/content/Context;->sendBroadcast",
        "Landroid/content/Context;->startService",
        "Landroid/content/Context;->bindService",
    ],
}


class APKDexExtractor(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.dex_files = []
        self.log.debug(inspect.currentframe().f_code.co_name)

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

    def _analyze_api_usage(self, dex):
        """Categorize sensitive API calls found in DEX bytecode."""
        api_usage = {cat: set() for cat in SENSITIVE_API_CATEGORIES}

        try:
            for method in dex.get_encoded_methods():
                code = method.get_code()
                if not code:
                    continue
                try:
                    bytecode = code.get_bc()
                    if not bytecode:
                        continue
                    for instruction in bytecode.get_instructions():
                        op_name = instruction.get_name()
                        if not op_name or not op_name.startswith("invoke"):
                            continue
                        output = instruction.get_output()
                        if not output:
                            continue
                        for category, patterns in SENSITIVE_API_CATEGORIES.items():
                            for pattern in patterns:
                                if pattern in output:
                                    api_usage[category].add(output.strip())
                                    break
                except Exception:
                    continue
        except Exception as e:
            self.log.warning(f"Error analyzing API usage: {e}")

        # Convert sets to sorted lists
        return {cat: sorted(calls) for cat, calls in api_usage.items() if calls}

    def _compute_obfuscation_indicators(self, classes, methods):
        """Compute obfuscation indicators from class/method names."""
        class_names = []
        for cls in classes:
            try:
                name = cls.get_name()
                if name:
                    class_names.append(name)
            except Exception:
                continue

        method_names = []
        for m in methods:
            try:
                name = m.get_name()
                if name and name not in ("<init>", "<clinit>"):
                    method_names.append(name)
            except Exception:
                continue

        if not class_names:
            return None

        # Short class names: extract just the class part from Dalvik notation
        short_class = 0
        for n in class_names:
            simple = n.split("/")[-1].rstrip(";")
            if len(simple) <= 2:
                short_class += 1

        short_method = sum(1 for n in method_names if len(n) <= 2)

        return {
            "short_class_names_pct": round(short_class / max(len(class_names), 1), 4),
            "short_method_names_pct": round(short_method / max(len(method_names), 1), 4),
            "non_ascii_identifiers": sum(1 for n in class_names if not n.isascii()),
            "avg_class_name_length": round(
                sum(len(n) for n in class_names) / max(len(class_names), 1), 2
            ),
        }

    def _compute_top_packages(self, classes):
        """Compute top packages by class count."""
        package_counter = Counter()
        for cls in classes:
            try:
                name = cls.get_name()  # "Lcom/example/foo/Bar;"
                if not name:
                    continue
                parts = name[1:].replace("/", ".").rsplit(".", 1)
                if len(parts) > 1:
                    package = parts[0]
                else:
                    package = "(default)"
                package_counter[package] += 1
            except Exception:
                continue

        return [
            {"package": pkg, "class_count": count}
            for pkg, count in package_counter.most_common(20)
        ]

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

        from androguard.core.dex import DEX

        try:
            dex_names = list(self.apk.get_dex_names() or [])
        except Exception as e:
            self.log.warning(f"Error getting DEX names for {self.hash.sha256}: {e}")
            dex_names = []

        try:
            dex_buffers = list(self.apk.get_all_dex() or [])
        except Exception as e:
            self.log.error(f"Error getting DEX buffers for {self.hash.sha256}: {e}")
            return None

        if not dex_buffers:
            self.log.debug("No DEX files found in APK")
            return None

        self.dex_files = []
        for i, dex_data in enumerate(dex_buffers):
            dex_name = dex_names[i] if i < len(dex_names) else f"classes{i}.dex"

            dex_sha256 = hashlib.sha256(dex_data).hexdigest()
            dex_tlsh = None
            if len(dex_data) >= 50:
                try:
                    dex_tlsh = tlsh.hash(dex_data) or None
                except Exception:
                    pass

            try:
                d = DEX(dex_data)
            except Exception as e:
                self.log.warning(f"Failed to parse DEX {dex_name}: {e}")
                continue

            try:
                classes = list(d.get_classes() or [])
            except Exception as e:
                self.log.warning(f"Error getting classes from {dex_name}: {e}")
                classes = []
            try:
                methods = list(d.get_methods() or [])
            except Exception as e:
                self.log.warning(f"Error getting methods from {dex_name}: {e}")
                methods = []
            try:
                strings = list(d.get_strings() or [])
            except Exception as e:
                self.log.warning(f"Error getting strings from {dex_name}: {e}")
                strings = []

            try:
                top_packages = self._compute_top_packages(classes)
            except Exception as e:
                self.log.warning(f"Error computing top packages for {dex_name}: {e}")
                top_packages = []
            try:
                api_usage = self._analyze_api_usage(d)
            except Exception as e:
                self.log.warning(f"Error analyzing API usage for {dex_name}: {e}")
                api_usage = {}
            try:
                obfuscation_indicators = self._compute_obfuscation_indicators(classes, methods)
            except Exception as e:
                self.log.warning(f"Error computing obfuscation indicators for {dex_name}: {e}")
                obfuscation_indicators = None

            self.dex_files.append(APKDexFile(
                filename=dex_name,
                sha256=dex_sha256,
                class_count=len(classes),
                method_count=len(methods),
                string_count=len(strings),
                tlsh=dex_tlsh,
                top_packages=top_packages,
                api_usage=api_usage if api_usage else None,
                obfuscation_indicators=obfuscation_indicators,
            ))

        return self.dex_files if self.dex_files else None

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

            current_time = datetime.now(timezone.utc)

            # DEX table: one row per DEX file
            dex_data = []
            for dex in self.dex_files:
                dex_data.append([
                    self.sha256,
                    dex.sha256,
                    dex.filename,
                    dex.tlsh,
                    dex.class_count,
                    dex.method_count,
                    dex.string_count,
                    json.dumps(dex.top_packages) if dex.top_packages else None,
                    json.dumps(dex.obfuscation_indicators) if dex.obfuscation_indicators else None,
                    current_time,
                ])

            # API usage table: one row per category per DEX
            api_data = []
            for dex in self.dex_files:
                if dex.api_usage:
                    for category, api_calls in dex.api_usage.items():
                        api_data.append([
                            self.sha256,
                            dex.sha256,
                            category,
                            api_calls,
                            current_time,
                        ])

            return {
                'multi_table': True,
                'dex': {
                    'table': 'redb_apk_dex',
                    'data': dex_data,
                    'column_names': [
                        'sha256', 'dex_sha256', 'dex_filename', 'dex_tlsh',
                        'dex_class_count', 'dex_method_count', 'dex_string_count',
                        'dex_top_packages', 'dex_obfuscation_indicators',
                        'analysis_date',
                    ],
                    'column_type_names': [
                        'FixedString(64)', 'FixedString(64)', 'String', 'Nullable(String)',
                        'UInt32', 'UInt32', 'UInt32',
                        'Nullable(String)', 'Nullable(String)',
                        "DateTime64(3, 'UTC')",
                    ],
                },
                'api_usage': {
                    'table': 'redb_apk_dex_api_usage',
                    'data': api_data,
                    'column_names': [
                        'sha256', 'dex_sha256', 'api_category',
                        'api_calls', 'analysis_date',
                    ],
                    'column_type_names': [
                        'FixedString(64)', 'FixedString(64)', 'LowCardinality(String)',
                        'Array(String)', "DateTime64(3, 'UTC')",
                    ],
                },
            }

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