Survey on Security of Android SDKs

Android SDK is a software toolkit used for Android application development.Since a single Android SDK can be integrated into multiple applications,its security implications for the installation ecosystem are chain-like,exposing the Android ecosystem to comprehensive threats from SDKs.In recent years,a series of security issues related to the Android SDK,such as SDK cross-library harvests private data and SDK library resource merging and overlay,have attracted high attention from both industry and academia.However,there remains a lack of comprehensive reviews on the security of Android SDKs.This paper syste-matically organizes existing related work,focusing on two key dimensions:the security of internal component code in Android SDKs and the security of runtime data interaction.For the former,it compiles research findings at both the system SDK and for third-party SDKs.For the latter,it summarizes studies on SDK self-violations and external intrusions into SDKs.Additionally,this paper analyzes recent advancements in Android SDK security research,introduces performance metrics for horizontal compari-son,combs through its development context and evolutionary process.Finally,prospects the future research directions for combining this field with emerging technologies such as current AI large language models.