Identifying Malicious Power-Consuming Applications in User Terminals

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Solution Overview

Problem

User terminals, especially intelligent devices, face significant power consumption issues due to malicious applications that occupy system resources in the background, leading to reduced battery life and user inconvenience, as existing methods fail to accurately identify and address these applications.

Innovation Solution

A method and apparatus that calculate and rank applications based on CPU occupation, wakelock holding time, and data traffic consumption to identify malicious power-consuming applications, allowing users to clear or ignore them, thereby improving battery endurance.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If applications are ranked based on total power consumption, then power-consuming applications can be identified, but legitimate applications like video players are incorrectly flagged as malicious

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepower consumption measurement accuracyVSAvoidapplication identification accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments power consumption measurement into different states: foreground execution and background execution. By separately measuring and analyzing power consumption in these distinct states, the system can identify malicious applications that consume excessive power in the background while allowing legitimate applications to function normally in the foreground.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies different evaluation criteria to different execution contexts. Foreground applications are evaluated based on user interaction and functionality, while background applications are strictly evaluated on resource consumption. This local quality approach ensures that video players are not incorrectly flagged despite their high power consumption during active use.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Duration of action of stationary object

If the system monitors and manages background power consumption of applications, then battery endurance can be improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvebattery enduranceVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Duration of action of stationary objectVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a self-service mechanism where the system automatically monitors, identifies, and manages applications with excessive background power consumption. The power management module autonomously detects malicious applications, generates notifications, and enables users to clear them without requiring complex manual intervention or configuration, thus improving battery endurance while keeping the system relatively simple.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

3Loss of information

If the system provides detailed power consumption statistics to users, then users can make informed decisions, but information overload may occur

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation completenessVSAvoiduser operation simplicity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the most critical information from power consumption data - specifically identifying applications with excessive background power consumption and presenting them in a simplified notification format. This allows users to make informed decisions about which applications to clear without being overwhelmed by detailed technical statistics, maintaining information completeness while ensuring ease of operation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentEP2977854B1Method, apparatus, and user terminal for removing malicious power consuming application
Publication Date: 2019.07.31 HUAWEI TECH CO LTD
  • EP2977854B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2977854B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2977854B1 patent drawingFigure 3~4

AI summary

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for clearing a malicious power-consuming application, and a user terminal. Background working power consumption of each application that is running in a user terminal is periodically calculated; an application whose background working power consumption is not less than a power consumption threshold is determined as a malicious power-consuming application; and a wakelock occupying time of each application that is running in the user terminal in a case in which a screen is turned off is periodically calculated, and if an application whose occupying time is not less than a set time threshold is a background working application, the application is determined as a malicious power-consuming application. These applications are applications that improperly occupy resources in the background, but are not applications that consume much power but are normally used by a user, so that the malicious power-consuming applications are accurately identified and detected, and unnecessary power consumption of the user terminal is avoided while user experience is ensured, thereby saving electric energy, and improving a battery endurance capability of the user terminal to some extent.