StuxMob: A situational-aware malware for targeted attack on smart mobile devices.

The availability of a rich variety of sensors in smart mobile devices has enabled today's software to be situational-aware and to learn about surrounding environment. We explore a novel generation of mobile malware, which utilizes this situational awareness and can attack a mobile device carried by a specific person, or people matching a specific set of criteria. The behavior and threat posed by StuxMob are distinguishable from the existing state-of-the-art malware. Today's malware attack devices either just after the devices got infected or through a command-and-control based botnets. In contrast, StuxMob will launch its payload and perform a specific act against the target, only if it finds a match between a given profile and the person carrying the device; otherwise, it remains dormant. By using off-the-shelf sensors of the mobile devices, StuxMob combines the physical activity of users with their surrounding environments to create users' profile. We analyze the feasibility of such a malware and propose defense mechanisms against this type of targeted attack.