Mobile and Web Applications Clones: A Comprehensive Study

The growth of mobile application and website markets resulted in a diverse range of apps that are localized or curated for specific use cases. This make it challenging for users to identify the correct version or name of the app they want to install. As a result, the threat of app cloning is raised, where adversaries copy an app’s package, make minimal changes to its code, and redistribute the cloned app on the market for financial gain or to spread malicious payloads. The existing methods for detecting cloned apps rely on static signatures, which can be easily evaded using control-flow and data-flow obfuscation techniques. Additionally, many approaches do not scale with the number of apps, code size, and complexity, leading to prohibitive detection time requirements. This paper investigates the issue of app cloning and its effects on the app development industry. A deep analysis of various existing methods and apps that are used to detect clone apps is provided. Also, the paper highlights the main strategies that app developers can use to protect their apps from being cloned. Finally, a summary of our findings through a developed survey within the UAE is provided and a set of recommendations for app developers on how to safeguard their apps from cloning is suggested.