thesis.tex

% Two sided means the left and right margins are different sizes and they alternate every page. 
% If your document is printed to be book or spiral bound this allows for a thick spine to not 
% eat into the space for your page content. 
\documentclass[11pt, a4paper, twoside, openany]{custard}

\usepackage[normalem]{ulem}

% All imports, packages, and configuration in here. 
% Your document should be about content so we abstract away the styling rules and tools we are using. 
\input{customisation}
\begin{document}
	
% The custom data for Swansea University and your degree name.
% The \protect\\ command forces a new line in the title which might be otherwise overriden by the template
	\title{Intentionally insecure Android Image against Inter Component Communication attacks}
	\author{Alexandru Dascălu\protect\\{\normalsize 965337}}
	\awardinginst{Swansea University}
	
% Comment / uncomment your degree type as needed.
	\degree{Bachelor of Science} 
	
% Institution details and logo
	\department{Department of Computer Science}
	\university{Swansea University}
	\unilogo{graphics/swansea.png}
	
% Hard code the date or allow the LaTeX compiler to fill it in whenever you recompile the document.
	\date{\today}
	
% Build the title and declaration pages, and pad the document so the text starts on a right hand book page.
% Page numbering is in roman numerals until the first page of an actual chapter which resets numbers 
% starting from 1 at that point. 
	\frontmatter%
	\maketitle
	\declaration
	\cleardoublepage
	
% Most books and theses have a brief foreword or dedication. 
	\begin{vplace}[0.7]
		\begin{large}
			\begin{center}
				\textit{I would like to dedicate this work to my family, for raising me and supporting me to be where I am now.}
			\end{center}
		\end{large}
	\end{vplace}

% Abstract comes before the contents page.	
	\begin{abstract}
		\vspace{-2em}
		\setcounter{page}{1}
		
		In the modern world, mobile devices have surpassed laptops and desktops in importance for many people. A negative effect of this is that mobile apps have become attractive targets for attackers. Cyber security is weak in many applications. Therefore, some have developed intentionally insecure apps which teach developers about vulnerabilities so that they can make their software more secure. One class of vulnerabilities that is both dangerous and is not focused on by these projects is related to Android Inter Component Communication.
		
		Components are the building blocks of Android apps, and they can communicate with each other through objects of the Intent class. Due to the current implementation of Inter Component Communication in Android, malware can control or spy on a vulnerable app. Many of the existing Android intentionally insecure apps only partially focus on this type of vulnerability, do not offer real and authentic examples of malicious and vulnerable apps, and may even require the user to use command-line tools to perform an attack.
		
		We have developed the DVM-ICC app, which is an educational tool for exploring in detail various types of ICC vulnerabilities. It contains educational content, provides interactivity, and allows the user to perform and observe cyber attacks in the form of challenges. We also created a suite of apps, with each acting either as a vulnerable or as a malicious app in a challenge. The user can see an example of malware attacking a vulnerable app and can complete the challenges on their mobile device.
		
		The insecure suite of Android apps we created fulfills its aim of educating users about ICC vulnerabilities and raising awareness, as demonstrated by two structured interviews I conducted. It is a polished piece of work that provides real examples of vulnerable and malicious apps, is very interactive, focuses exclusively on ICC vulnerabilities and attacks, provides plenty of guidance, and can be used on a device, without a computer. Thus, it improves in key areas that are lacking in other projects of this type.
	\end{abstract}
	
% A long form dedication. 
	\begin{Acknowledgements}
		First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my mother for all the emotional support and encouragement that she has given me over the past academic year and for being there when I needed her.
		
		Furthermore, I would like to thank Dr Phillip James for being a great supervisor, being easy to contact and guiding me towards realistic project goals.
		
		I am thankful towards my colleagues Constantinos Loizou and Avi Varma for their support and suggestions, and want to thank Avi for sharing with me things he learnt when doing his project a year ago. Moreover, I want to thank them for participating in an informal user study to help me evaluate my project.
		
		I sincerely thank Phillippos Pantekis and Bessam Helal for advising me during the process of picking my project in May 2020.
		
		Finally, I would like to thank Dr Mihaela Cojocaru for helping me to improve my mental health during this difficult time.
	\end{Acknowledgements}
	
% Build the table of contents page.
	\tableofcontents*
	 
% Optionally you can make a bank of known acronyms in acronyms.tex that you can call on throughout your document.
	%\input{acronyms} 
	
% For long documents like a Doctoral thesis you should include a list of tables and figures throughout 
% your document. This is uses a shortened version of each table and figures caption and enumerates all 
% of them with their table or figure number. This is automatic, you do not need to modfy it if you do use it.
	\input{list_of_tables_and_figures} 
	
% Reset numeric page numbering from page 1
	\mainmatter%

% Insert the code for each of your chapters
	\input{./chapter/thesis_intro}
	\input{./chapter/thesis_background}
	\input{./chapter/thesis_implementation}
	\input{./chapter/thesis_reflections}
	
% Formatting citations properly when they are rendering incorrectly in your PDF can be fiddly,
% espectially when punctuation and international characters are involed. Sometimes multiple re-compilations
% are needed in addition to clearing temporary auxiliary files to see your changes in your document.
% Insert the bibliography using citations contained in the file citations.bib
	\bibintoc%
	\bibliography{citations} 
	
% In the appendix you might include a full code listing for an implemented algorithm that you showed a 
% small chunk of in one of your chapters. If you have extra graphs for ablation style experiments you 
% might enumerate them within the appendix and use \label{name} and \ref{name} to automatically insert 
% the correct section locations when you talk about them in your chapters.
% Within appendix.tex you should use chapters as the top level section dividers.
	\appendix
	\addappheadtotoc
	\input{./chapter/appendix}
	
\end{document}