ASPIRE

The Android Security and Privacy Research (ASPIRE) program provides funding for certain research related to Android.

ASPIRE tackles fundamental challenges through the lens of practicality and encourages the development of technologies that may become core Android features in the future, impacting the Android ecosystem in the next 2-5 years. This timeframe extends beyond the next annual Android release to allow adequate time to analyze, develop, and stabilize research into features before including in the platform. Note that this is distinct from other Android security initiatives such as the vulnerability disclosure program.

ASPIRE operates by inviting proposals for research topics, providing funding for select proposals, and partnering external researchers with Googlers. We announce a call for proposals once a year, typically in the middle of the year, and announce the proposals selected for funding by the end of the calendar year.

Beyond ASPIRE, if you're a researcher interested in pushing the boundaries of Android security and privacy, there are several ways to participate:

  • Apply for a research internship as a student pursuing an advanced degree.
  • Apply to become a Visiting Researcher at Google.
  • Co-author publications with Android team members.
  • Collaborate with Android team members to make changes to the Android Open Source Project.

Publications funded by ASPIRE

2025

  • ScopeVerif: Analyzing the Security of Android's Scoped Storage via Differential Analysis Zeyu Lei, Güliz Seray Tuncay, Beatrice Carissa Williem, Z. Berkay Celik, and Antonio Bianchi. Purdue University, Google 2025 [paper]
  • LANShield: Analysing and Protecting Local Network Access on Mobile Devices. Angelos Beitis, Jeroen Robben, Alexander Matern, Zhen Lei, Yijia Li, Nian Xue, Yongle Chen, Vik Vanderlinden, and Mathy Vanhoef. 25th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS) 2025. [paper] [website]

    • 2024

    • SIMurai: Slicing Through the Complexity of SIM Card Security Research Tomasz Piotr Lisowski, Merlin Chlosta, Jinjin Wang, and Marius Muench. 33rd USENIX Security Symposium. [paper] [video] [slides]
    • 50 Shades of Support: A Device-Centric Analysis of Android Security Updates. Abbas Acar, Güliz Seray Tuncay, Esteban Luques, Harun Oz, Ahmet Aris, and Selcuk Uluagac. Networked and Distributed Systems Security (NDSS) 2024. [paper] [video]
    • Wear's my Data? Understanding the Cross-Device Runtime Permission Model in Wearables. Doguhan Yeke, Muhammad Ibrahim, Güliz SerayP Tuncay, Habiba Farrukh, Abdullah Imran, Antonio Bianchi, and Z. Berkay Celik. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P) 2024. [paper] [video]
    • (In)Security of File Uploads in Node.js. Harun Oz, Abbas Acar, Ahmet Aris, Güliz Seray Tuncay, Amin Kharraz, Selcuk Uluagac. ACM Web Conference (WWW) 2024. [paper]

    2023

    • RøB: Ransomware over Modern Web Browsers. Oz, Harun, Ahmet Aris, Abbas Acar, Güliz Seray Tuncay, Leonardo Babun, and Selcuk Uluagac. USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security) 2023. [paper] [video] [slides]
    • UE Security Reloaded: Developing a 5G Standalone User-Side Security Testing Framework. E Bitsikas, S Khandker, A Salous, A Ranganathan, R Piqueras Jover, C Pöpper. ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec) 2023. [paper] [video] [slides]
    • The Android Malware Handbook. Qian Han, Salvador Mandujano, Sebastian Porst, V.S. Subrahmanian, Sai Deep Tetali. [book]
    • Understanding Dark Patterns in Home IoT Devices. Monica Kowalczyk, Johanna T. Gunawan, David Choffnes, Daniel J Dubois, Woodrow Hartzog, Christo Wilson. ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2023. [paper]
    • Continuous Learning for Android Malware Detection. Yizheng Chen, Zhoujie Ding, and David Wagner. USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security) 2023. [paper]
    • PolyScope: Multi-Policy Access Control Analysis to Triage Android Scoped Storage. Yu-Tsung Lee, Haining Chen, William Enck, Hayawardh Vijayakumar, Ninghui Li, Zhiyun Qian, Giuseppe Petracca, and Trent Jaeger. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, doi: 10.1109/TDSC.2023.3310402. [paper]
    • Triaging Android Systems Using Bayesian Attack Graphs. Yu-Tsung Lee, Rahul George, Haining Chen, Kevin Chan, and Trent Jaeger. IEEE Secure Development Conference (SecDev), 2023. [paper]

    2022

    • SARA: Secure Android Remote Authorization. Abdullah Imran, Habiba Farrukh, Muhammad Ibrahim, Z. Berkay Celik, and Antonio Bianchi. USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security) 2022. [paper] [video] [slides]
    • FReD: Identifying File Re-Delegation in Android System Services. Sigmund Albert Gorski III, Seaver Thorn, William Enck, and Haining Chen. USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security) 2022. [paper] [video] [slides]
    • Poirot: Probabilistically Recommending Protections for the Android Framework. Zeinab El-Rewini, Zhuo Zhang, Yousra Aafer. ACM Computer and Communication Security (CCS) 2022. [paper]
    • Sifter: Protecting Security-Critical Kernel Modules in Android through Attack Surface Reduction. Hsin-Wei Hung, Yingtong Liu, Ardalan Amiri Sani. ACM Conference on Mobile Computing And Networking (MobiCom) 2022. [paper]

    2021

    • An Investigation of the Android Kernel Patch Ecosystem. Zheng Zhang, Hang Zhang, Zhiyun Qian, and Billy Lau. USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security) 2021. [paper] [video] [slides]
    • Demystifying Android's Scoped Storage Defense. Yu-Tsung Lee, Haining Chen, and Trent Jaeger. IEEE Security & Privacy, vol. 19, no. 05, pp. 16-25, 2021. [paper]

    2019

    • Protecting the stack with PACed canaries. H. Liljestrand, Z. Gauhar, T. Nyman, J.-E. Ekberg, and N. Asokan. [paper]