Speaker:Dr. Amit Kumar Sikder

This is a hybrid event. You can attend in person in Atanasoff B029 or online at https://iastate.zoom.us/j/91553546882.

Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: How Popular Web Apps are Weaponized by Malware

Web applications provide a wide range of utilities, including content delivery, data storage, social networking, and much more, with their popularity continuing to soar globally. As of 2024, it is estimated that over 5 billion people use the internet, and web applications play a central role in daily activities like communication, shopping, entertainment, and cloud-based work. Platforms like Facebook, Google Drive, and YouTube each boast over 2 billion active users, while newer apps such as TikTok continue to attract millions of new users monthly. Malware authors increasingly integrate popular web apps into their malware, enabling Web App-Engaged (WAE) malware to profile victims, exfiltrate data, and hide communications with attacker-controlled servers by blending with legitimate traffic. This stealthy behavior poses significant challenges, requiring both technical and policy solutions from Incident Responders and web app providers. However, meaningful collaboration has yet to occur, and research on the prevalence of WAE malware remains limited, hindering further action. In this talk, I will explore how modern malware leverages widely used communication protocols and abuses popular web apps to carry out malicious activities. Drawing from my research, I will present innovative program analysis techniques designed to identify sophisticated web-app malware. A key insight is that since malware implements known protocols and web APIs, we can reverse engineer these samples to covertly monitor their attack workflows, gather evidence, and dismantle their networks. Additionally, I will highlight how this research paves the way for new collaborations with web app providers to enhance web security and protect users.

About Amit Kumar Sikder

Dr. Amit Kumar Sikder is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Iowa State University. He completed his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Florida International University (FIU) in 2020. Before joining Iowa State University, he worked as a research scientist in the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research interests lie in the intersection of computer system forensics, artificial intelligence, and program analysis. His research has developed novel techniques to model smart device, system, and app behaviors during task execution (AI-assisted, user-initiated, and dynamic tasks) by correlating intra and inter-device data-sharing patterns, program analysis, and system forensics. He has published over 20 papers in top-tier security conferences including USENIX Security, ACM CCS, NDSS, and ACSAC. His research has received several awards including UGS Provost Award for Outstanding Creative Project and Dissertation Year Fellowship at FIU. His research has been featured in several national and international media outlets including ACM Tech News, The Register, PBS News, NBC News, and Science News.