Research & Evaluation
Explore in-depth investigations, reproducible workflows, and empirical studies carried out using FirmwareDroid to analyze Android firmware images and pre-installed software.
Pre-installed Malware, Botnets, and Trojanized Firmware
Low-cost streaming hardware based on AllWinner and Rockchip chipsets often ships with pre-installed malicious software directly in factory ROMs. We use FirmwareDroid to unpack system images, trace trojanized ADB daemons, and catalog malicious APKs communicating with ad-fraud infrastructure.
Multi-Engine Static Inspection & Unified GraphQL Triage
While FMD specializes in full firmware extractions, researchers frequently need to triage suspicious individual APKs. This study demonstrates queuing an app through AndroGuard, MobSF, Exodus-Core, and APKLeaks, aggregating findings into a consolidated GraphQL query.
Towards Automated Static Analysis of Pre-Installed Android Apps
Published at the 10th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft 2023), this empirical study introduced FMD's architecture and evaluated real-world vendor firmware to uncover structural variance, hidden attack surfaces, and privileged tracker ecosystems.
Conduct Your Own Research
FirmwareDroid is designed for repeatability and automated analysis. Deploy the Docker Compose stack to inspect firmware images and extract pre-installed applications.