Achieving accuracy and scalability simultaneously in detecting application clones on Android markets

Besides traditional problems such as potential bugs, (smartphone) application clones on Android markets bring new threats. That is, attackers clone the code from legitimate Android applications, assemble it with malicious code or advertisements, and publish these ``purpose-added" app clones on the same or other markets for benefits. Three inherent and unique characteristics make app clones difficult to detect by existing techniques: a billion opcode problem caused by cross-market publishing, gap between code clones and app clones, and prevalent Type 2 and Type 3 clones.