Mobile application security focuses on the software security posture of mobile apps on various platforms like Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. This covers applications that run both on mobile phones as well as tablets. It involves assessing applications for security issues in the contexts of the platforms that they are designed to run on, the frameworks that they are developed with, and the anticipated set of users (e.g., employees vs. end users). Mobile applications are a critical part of a business’s online presence and many businesses rely entirely on mobile apps to connect with users from around the world.

Common issues that affect mobile apps include:

• Storing or unintentionally leaking sensitive data in ways that it could be read by other applications on the user’s phone.
• Implementing poor authentication and authorization checks that could be bypassed by malicious applications or users.
• Using data encryption methods that are known to be vulnerable or can be easily broken.
• Transmitting sensitive data without encryption over the Internet.

Mobile application security testing (MAST) involves testing a mobile app in ways that a malicious user would try to attack it. Effective security testing begins with an understanding of the application’s business purpose and the types of data it handles. From there, a combination of static analysis, dynamic analysis, and penetration testing results in an efficient holistic assessment to find vulnerabilities that would be missed if the techniques were not used together effectively. The testing process includes:

• Interacting with the application and understanding how it stores, receives, and transmits data.
• Decrypting encrypted parts of the application.
• Decompiling the application and analyzing the resulting code.
• Using static analysis to pinpoint security weaknesses in the decompiled code.
• Applying the understanding gained from reverse engineering and static analysis to drive dynamic analysis and penetration testing.
• Utilizing dynamic analysis and penetration testing to evaluate the effectiveness of security controls (e.g., authentication and authorization controls) that are used within the application.

Securenass offers best of Class on Prem and Cloud Solutions with Managed services for Mobile application Security by a team of security experts who continually refine their testing methodologies as the vulnerability landscape changes.