Definition
Potentially Unwanted App (PUA)
A Potentially Unwanted App (PUA) is an app whose embedding of web content creates a security risk to the user, even though the app is not malware in the classical sense. In the mobile-web setting the term marks the benign container an attacker uses to reach the user’s browsing: under the web attacker model the attacker’s website is loaded inside an otherwise benign app, and that app — because it exposes a high-interaction web-embedding surface such as a WebView — is flagged a PUA.
The Term in Both Directions
Obs
The slides apply the term in the web-attacker direction: the app is benign, the loaded site is the attacker’s. The app attacker model flips the picture — the attacker controls the app and loads a benign site — and exploits the same embedding surface from the other side. In both cases the risk comes from the app’s web-embedding component, not from the website or the app in isolation.