Adversaries may abuse Android’s device administration API to obtain a higher degree of control over the device. By abusing the API, adversaries can perform several nefarious actions, such as resetting the device’s password for Endpoint Denial of Service, factory resetting the device for File Deletion and to delete any traces of the malware, disabling all the device’s cameras, or to make it more difficult to uninstall the app.
Device administrators must be approved by the user at runtime, with a system popup showing which actions have been requested by the app. In conjunction with other techniques, such as Input Injection, an app can programmatically grant itself administrator permissions without any user input.
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| S1061 | AbstractEmu |
AbstractEmu can modify system settings to give itself device administrator privileges.[1] |
| S0540 | Asacub | |
| S0522 | Exobot | |
| S0536 | GPlayed | |
| S1077 | Hornbill | |
| S0539 | Red Alert 2.0 |
Red Alert 2.0 can request device administrator permissions.[6] |
| S1082 | Sunbird | |
| S0318 | XLoader for Android |
XLoader for Android requests Android Device Administrator access.[7] |
| ID | Mitigation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| M1006 | Use Recent OS Version |
Changes were introduced in Android 7 to make abuse of device administrator permissions more difficult.[8] |
| M1011 | User Guidance |
Users should scrutinize every device administration permission request. If the request is not expected or the user does not recognize the application, the application should be uninstalled immediately. |
| ID | Data Source | Data Component | Detects |
|---|---|---|---|
| DS0041 | Application Vetting | Permissions Requests |
Application vetting services can check for the string |
| DS0042 | User Interface | Permissions Request |
The user is prompted for approval when an application requests device administrator permissions. |
| System Settings |
The user can see which applications are registered as device administrators in the device settings. |