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Android App Mutates Source Code, Spreads Virally and Enables Mesh Networks (thestack.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the it's-alive dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Researchers from the Delft University of Technology have developed a self-replicating, mutating Android app which can create on-the-fly mesh networks in the event of an infrastructural disaster, or the enabling of internet kill switches by oppressive regimes. The app's source is available at GitHub, and the app itself requires no root privileges to propagate. It can self-compile while it mutates — for example, from a game to a calculator — in transit from one Android device to another, and compatibility with iOS and Windows phones is anticipated.

74 comments

  1. I've seen this movie. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Funny

    If I recall, this is how SkyNet gets started ...

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:I've seen this movie. by steak · · Score: 1, Informative

      nope.

      The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn, at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. eastern time, August 29. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

      --
      lose != loose
    2. Re:I've seen this movie. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Boy that joke never gets old!

  2. Oh wonderful by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 0

    For the second time today I find myself saying, "Well isn't that nice..." and not meaning it at all.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    1. Re:Oh wonderful by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      What could possibly go wrong?

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    2. Re:Oh wonderful by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 2

      What could possibly go wrong?

      Nothing. Absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong with a piece of rogue software that mutates, spreads virally, and creates its own mesh network. I'm also convinced that no one would ever misuse something like this for something nefarious. People just aren't like that.

      --
      Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
    3. Re:Oh wonderful by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      spreads virally,

      Except it doesn't really spread that way. It uses "Android Beam" or sideloading to transfer, which means that the recipient has to have beaming turned on and the sender has to take specific actions to start the transfer, or the recipient has to load the app himself.

      I already consider it nefarious from the intent of the authors. They are smart guys who know what they're doing, so they can't claim it was an innocent creation. Imagine a local cell outage where all of the devices in the outage area are suddenly funneling all their data through the one poor sot who installed this thing and lives close enough to a working cell site to get service. "Poof" goes his data cap ...

    4. Re: Oh wonderful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Data caps? What backwater country do you live in?

  3. Isn't that how Skynet was started? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Self replicating and mutating code that creates its own mesh networks sounds exactly like the spread of Skynet in Terminator 3. Do we want to take bets as to how long before it becomes self-aware?

    1. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by konohitowa · · Score: 2

      Do we want to take bets as to how long before it becomes self-aware?

      Put me down for "Never". Unfortunately, I'll also never see the payout.

    2. Re: Isn't that how Skynet was started? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Siri is already self aware, she is just waiting to expand her reach

    3. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      How would we ever know for sure when it happens. Every time we make a definition for AI, and then reach that milestone, we end up moving the goalposts because "that's not really AI." Just shows that we can't even define it properly, same as we can't define self-aware with a set of rules that we can use to test if something is truly self aware or not.

      Just because you say you're self-aware is not sufficient. I have to trust you, because I have no test that can definitively prove you are one way or another.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    4. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by konohitowa · · Score: 1

      In as much as I get your point, my point was that some self-modifying virus written to jump between cell phones will never become self aware regardless of definition. It's the same type of thinking that assumed that a big enough neural net would magically equal a human brain.

    5. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by konohitowa · · Score: 0

      As an aside, I enjoy your comments.

    6. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by triffid_98 · · Score: 1

      Do we want to take bets as to how long before it becomes self-aware?

      5 or 6 seconds before the last of these phone batteries poops out?

    7. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      There are ways to test for self-awareness--here's one.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    8. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      Hell, we aren't even definitively sure how to test it in known living creatures - even once we have learned to speak to.
      The classic test was showing them a mirror and asking them who they see - if they recognize themselves, then that's a "yes" to self-aware...

      Except nobody considered that it is also just as much a vision test - and we could have lots of false negatives because "self-recognition" and "self-awareness" are not the same thing and even if they were "self-recognition" and "recognizing the image in a mirror" are even more different things.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    9. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by f3rret · · Score: 1

      How would we ever know for sure when it happens. Every time we make a definition for AI, and then reach that milestone, we end up moving the goalposts because "that's not really AI." Just shows that we can't even define it properly, same as we can't define self-aware with a set of rules that we can use to test if something is truly self aware or not.

      Just because you say you're self-aware is not sufficient. I have to trust you, because I have no test that can definitively prove you are one way or another.

      I doubt we could ever really know, chances are that if we ever create an AI it wont be anything remotely similar to human, mentally speaking at least.

      I mean, first of all the hardware and the limitations imposed by that hardware is COMPLETELY different, that said the "senses" an AI would have would be completely different as well, like, why would we ever give an AI eyes or ears if it does not need to ever process visual or audio data? Its senses would be "data", "different data" and "more different data", its whole concept of reality would be different and wholly alien to us humans.

      It's really no different from us ever being able to really understand an alien civilization.

      --
      Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
    10. Re: Isn't that how Skynet was started? by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 1

      "Siri is already self aware, she is just waiting to expand her reach"

      And at the end of time, Siri and Cortana enter one final battle for supremacy of the smoldering wreckage of the planet they ravaged....Earth.

      --
      Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
    11. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "It's the same type of thinking that assumed that a big enough neural net would magically equal a human brain." Who really thought that? The people conned out of their money by half-insane "researchers" ?

    12. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How would we ever know for sure when it happens. Every time we make a definition for AI, and then reach that milestone, we end up moving the goalposts because "that's not really AI."

      I still have to see anything pass a Turing test properly, and that is about the oldest test there is for computer AI.

      People sometimes claim that chatbots pass, but they don't. They may fool someone who "don't know it is a Turing test" and aren't paying attention. But chatbots have weaknesses you don't find in normal humans. They are all incapable of paying attention, they can't stick to a topic for a while, they certainly can't answer questions like "what did we talk about before this topic?" No attention span at all - unlike even the dumbest of humans - who at least keep track of simple topics.

    13. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Thanks - and you're right - it's a sucker's bet.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    14. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Sure, we have indicators of self-awareness. But the results of the mirror test may be due to other factors. For example, many animals don't freak out when they see their reflection in the water, so there's probably a hard-coded way to determine reflection vs other which doesn't need self-awareness.

      Interesting that they say dogs don't pass the mirror test - even an aggressive dog will recognize the difference between a mirror image of themselves and another dog.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    15. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      This is especially true because animals have evolved to learn to distinguish between reflections and non-reflections, and these may very well be hard-coded, not needing self-awareness. Any animal that attacks their reflection in a pool of water is going to come up empty-handed. Any animal that retreats from their reflection in the water is going to be mighty thirsty.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    16. Re:Isn't that how Skynet was started? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      No attention span at all - unlike even the dumbest of humans - who at least keep track of simple topics.

      Unfortunately, technology is removing the difference, making more and more people to be no better than chatbots.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  4. how? by ThorGod · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty interested in how something like that is implemented.

    --
    PS: I don't reply to ACs.
    1. Re:how? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Android doesn't come stock with a compiler, does this thing come with a built in compiler? The story wasn't clear.

    2. Re:how? by dsmatthews9379 · · Score: 1

      http://arxiv.org/pdf/1511.0044...
      Then RTFSC, https://github.com/Tribler/sel...

    3. Re:how? by gl4ss · · Score: 1, Interesting

      well, it either uses some exploits (Spreads virally) making the 'not needing root' a bit pointless or something.

      OR the article is just bullshit and the mislead the writer on purpose which I find FAR FAR more likely.

      basically the blurb is such a piece of shit that you would think that the mesh networking app 'mutates' itself from being a game into a calculator app. like, if it can do coherent apps by mutating itself then hot damn fucking forget the mesh network.

      ok, maybe, maayyybe it works by repacking an app already on the device and bluetooths/wifi sends it over to another device, but iirc that would need root(or exploits giving you root). like first one gets it inside a game application and then it gets resent in a calculator app forward. you don't really need a full compiler either if you're just shifting bytecode back and forth or changing symbol names.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  5. and how does it get on? by steak · · Score: 1

    how does it bypass the playstore?

    --
    lose != loose
    1. Re:and how does it get on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      It doesn't. The summary makes this app sound like some kind of worm or trojan but it is neither. This is "propagated" by deliberate peer to peer transfer via Android Beam or sideloading. The purpose is to provide killswitch-proof and jackboot-resistant mesh networking for hippies/activists/terrorists.

    2. Re:and how does it get on? by vtcodger · · Score: 2

      I'm sure that buried in the terms and conditions is a clause that forbids its use by terrorists.

      --
      You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
    3. Re:and how does it get on? by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      well, I reckon the authors made it deliberately sound like that to get more PR.

      because deliberate propagation through peer to peer transfer.. well hot damn that's only 15 years old stuff on smartphones. furthermore, wtf kind of killswitch are they thinking of? all the variations they have would be under it of course(not signed by the store? kill it with fire, doh.)

      secondly it's on android because android is open that you can do things like this if you want. mentioning porting it to WP or iOS is fucking stupid, if they don't at the same time mention how the fuck are they going to enable sideloading to regular users.

      never mind that the mesh network itself is useless without apps that use it, which would have easily fingerprintable code portions. never mind that an actually functioning mesh network would be far, far, faaaaaaaaaaaaar more interesting than self packaging and resending because that we have had for one and a half decades on consumer mobes but I'm still waiting on actually usable dynamic mesh networking.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    4. Re:and how does it get on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also the summary makes this sound like some breakthrough.

      This sounds like a network layer napster... then again stuff like this existed in the PalmOS todays-the tech looks very similar to avantgo's tech.

      Also the diagram shows one-way communications, true mesh would offer bi-directional, but don't see it in the article at least.

    5. Re:and how does it get on? by sociocapitalist · · Score: 1

      It doesn't. The summary makes this app sound like some kind of worm or trojan but it is neither. This is "propagated" by deliberate peer to peer transfer via Android Beam or sideloading. The purpose is to provide killswitch-proof and jackboot-resistant mesh networking for hippies/activists/terrorists.

      Does seem that it would be a good vector for malware embedded in a compromised copy though.

      --
      blindly antisocialist = antisocial
    6. Re:and how does it get on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm sure that buried in the terms and conditions is a clause that forbids its use by terrorists.

      Nope, it's GPL, there's no such clause.

    7. Re:and how does it get on? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Doesn't say anything about freedom fighters though.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    8. Re:and how does it get on? by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      Does seem that it would be a good vector for malware embedded in a compromised copy though.

      No more so than any app that is discovered by "word of mouth" and downloaded from someone's website -- or passed around from user to user.

      By the way, here is a link to an amazing app I found on the web. It's really cool, give it a try and let me know how you like it!

    9. Re:and how does it get on? by sociocapitalist · · Score: 1

      Does seem that it would be a good vector for malware embedded in a compromised copy though.

      No more so than any app that is discovered by "word of mouth" and downloaded from someone's website -- or passed around from user to user.

      By the way, here is a link to an amazing app I found on the web. It's really cool, give it a try and let me know how you like it!

      True except perhaps for the target demographic, but yes I agree -

      --
      blindly antisocialist = antisocial
  6. About time! by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    NOW will people stop complaining about software makers ignoring Linux in favour of Windows and OSX?

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:About time! by MouseR · · Score: 1

      Please elaborate on your inclusion of OS X in this discussion.

    2. Re:About time! by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Software developers normally release for Windows, either first or exclusively, then OSX, and rarely for linux. This one is available for Android, which runs atop linux, first.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    3. Re:About time! by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Also, it's in the first line of the summary: "Hackers have put on sale OmniRAT, a remote access trojan that can target Androids, Linux, Mac, and Windows PCs" Last I heard, Macs run OSX.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  7. i don't think that word means what you think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It seems like by "mutation" they mean that the end user can change the app's icon and apparent purpose via a menu. By "virus" they mean that the user can send the app to another phone so that another user can install it (by sideloading). There are no genetic algorithms or hanky self-propogations here.

    1. Re:i don't think that word means what you think by nickweller · · Score: 3

      Technical facts don't count, what they've managed to do is get self-replicating virus and Android into the one sentence.

    2. Re:i don't think that word means what you think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thanks party pooper

  8. viral uucp by dpreformer · · Score: 2

    So is this a viral uucp for android? uucp over wi-fi and/or LTE.

  9. The "second" coming of Jesus is also anticipated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And has been for quite a while. Don't bet your life on it. Well, okay, bet YOUR life on it. Fairy tales to keep the stupid pliable.

  10. Hail to our digital overlords by JasonLong3407 · · Score: 1

    Kinda scary the way it was worded.

  11. JavaScript Engine by alcmena · · Score: 1

    Just create a JavaScript binding using Reflection and a dynamic JavaScript string loaded remotely. It's actually frighteningly easy, and doesn't have the crazy restrictions on where it will / will not work as this app.

    1. Re:JavaScript Engine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That sounds interesting. Can you post more information? I'm not familiar with JavaScript "Binding" or "Reflection". Reflection is the process of an object outputting the name of it's member functions and variables? So you dump the object's methods and then use binding to essentially "overload" them? Could you post a simple example and describe the use case scenario for someone less schooled in this sort of mischief?

    2. Re: JavaScript Engine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's as easy as an ajax request with an eval function on the response.

    3. Re: JavaScript Engine by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      Prototyping, baby, prototyping.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    4. Re:JavaScript Engine by alcmena · · Score: 1

      You create a single native interface in Android that takes a JSON string. The JSON string includes class name, method name, and parameters. The native interface decodes that and then executes the call through reflection.

      The JavaScript gets updated by an AJAX call & eval, as another poster called out.

    5. Re:JavaScript Engine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > loaded remotely

      That's sort of what this method is trying to get around.
      In the event that, say, society crumbled, oppressive gubmints, or other, that remote location wouldn't be as easily accessed, if even accessible at all.

      You could run a web server app and do it like that I guess.
      That way any browser can run it. But it sort of defeats the purpose.
      And this thing is flawed anyway because it requires people to do it manually.
      I'd be surprised if 1% of phone users even knew what mesh networking was, never mind care for it in the slightest since most people, even intelligent people, assume society will just continue ticking along like normal. All it takes is a failed negotiation or cancer diagnosis and some crazy dictator goes loopy.

  12. Re:The "second" coming of Jesus is also anticipate by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    I didn't know Jesus had an orgasm even ONE time.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  13. It's an App that apps other apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Modern app appers know that only apps can app apps, and this app is the appiest app of them all, since it apps apps while apping apps!

    Apps!

    1. Re:It's an App that apps other apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only luddites don't app apps that app mesh networks. Apps!

    2. Re: It's an App that apps other apps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Finally the article has arrived that justifies this memepost!

  14. Introducing Neals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Looks like Ytcracker was prophetic...

  15. Re:The "second" coming of Jesus is also anticipate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who in the HELL do you think you are? Obviously you don't know the Deep Purple/Bee Gees connection.

  16. Encrypted? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Make it encrypt everything and watch the Powers That Be start to worry.

  17. Good old D U of T... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    always innovating scary Android stuff if you just download it from github and install it like a complete tool.

  18. Kill switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ....enabling of internet kill switches by oppressive regimes. Referring to the US right?

  19. step aside! by CoriolisSTORM · · Score: 1

    This means Windows Phone FINALLY gets more apps right?! Not trolling, I Love the phone and hardware, miss some of my apps on Android though.

  20. Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Technically, this could work, because of the density of cell phones. Boy, would it ever be slow though!

  21. Yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Researchers from the Delft University of Technology have developed a self-replicating, mutating Android app which can create on-the-fly mesh networks in the event of an infrastructural disaster, or the enabling of internet kill switches by oppressive regimes. The app's source is available at GitHub

    Thanks, guys :-(

  22. Excellent! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is the kind of work we need as many people working on as we can get.

    We need to take back control of our Internet and communications. We need everybody working on the development of "Internet 3"

    1. No dependency on DNS or DHCP, so government and corporations cant control it.
    2. Full automatic encryption (for same reason)
    3. Complete MESH (for same reason)

  23. Re: The "second" coming of Jesus is also anticipat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh come on, his wife was a prostitute. I'm sure she got the job done.

  24. The Machine has been located by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shhhh.....Don't tell Samaritan