Hidden Dangers: Uncovering Security and Privacy Risks through Large-scale Mobile App Analysis

Smartphone apps have become essential for our daily lives, handling communication, finances, health data, and other sensitive data. To function, apps often connect with cloud backends or devices and thus embed information about their communication partners. In my thesis, I leverage this property to analyze apps at scale, uncovering security and privacy issues in the IoT ecosystem, local network permissions, and the supply chain. By responsibly disclosing my findings, I help to secure the ecosystem.