Mobile app penetration testing is an important part of the development process for any company with a mobile application. When you are developing an app, it’s not enough to make sure that it functions properly. It is also necessary to test how well your app can resist attacks by hackers and malicious code injection.
If you don’t do this type of testing, your customers could put themselves at risk without even knowing it! This blog post will give you some insight into what mobile app penetration testing entails and why it’s so important for businesses to invest in these tests early on in the development process.
What is mobile app penetration testing?
Mobile application penetration testing is a way to test the security and defenses of your Android or iOS app. With this type of testing, you can uncover any potential weaknesses in your code that hackers may exploit to gain access to sensitive data stored on the device.
This particular part of mobile app development has become especially important due to recent Android vulnerabilities like Stagefright.
The only way you will know if there are holes in your Android (or other) apps’ armor is by doing proper penetration tests before releasing them for public consumption.
Why is mobile app penetration testing so important?
Developers often forget about this crucial step due to a lack of knowledge about the Android OS and its security model. Penetration testing is a way to test how secure your mobile applications really is before making it available for download on Google Play or other Android app stores. If you choose not to do this type of testing, you will be putting users at risk without even knowing about it.
How does it work?
There are many different ways through which an attacker could get their hands on information from within a secure system via malicious attacks such as man-in-the-middle, SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and privilege escalation.
The penetration testing process will help you discover these types of flaws in your Android app to patch them before they are exploited by hackers on a large scale.
How does Android penetration testing work?
Mobile penetration testers use two different types of tools during Android penetration testing: static analysis and dynamic analysis. Android apps are basically just Java code, so it makes sense that static testing is done with a Java decompiler and virtual machine (like DexToSource by Jason Haddix).
This type of tool allows testers to analyze the app’s source code without actually having access to the Android platform or an emulator.
Dynamic Android penetration testing uses real Android devices in conjunction with tools like Drozer and MobSF for automated mobile pentesting frameworks.
These types of frameworks allow you to test your application against attacks such as data sniffing, man-in-the-middle (MITM), privilege escalation exploits, reverse engineering, and more!
What is iOS App Penetration Testing?
Just like Android applications can be tested using static sources via a Java decompiler, iOS apps can be tested using a tool called iExplorer to access the files on your device.
These types of tests are known as “static” testing because no actual running code is involved at all – it’s just looking for security vulnerabilities in your app source code itself.
How can Hackers exploit mobile apps?
Hackers could potentially exploit mobile applications developed using SDK or NDK through different methods such as: exploiting known security vulnerabilities, reverse engineering libraries used for building an application, intercepting data being sent from one part of the program to another, abusing permissions requested at installation time, bypassing authorization procedures within programs that handle sensitive data, etc.
Are there any tools I can use?
There are many different Android security assessment tools that help Android developers perform penetration tests such as AppMon, Apkudo, Appsec- by Synopsys, etc. The prices range from free (limited features) to quite expensive depending on what functions/features they provide.
Are there any specific penetration testing frameworks?
Some good Android-specific Android app pentesting frameworks and SDKs include the OWASP Mobile Security Testing Framework (MSTG), Drozer, XMAS – The eXploitation Assistant for Android, BURP Suite, etc.
All of these provide easy access to functions required for performing mobile application penetration tests such as using exploits, reverse engineering apps, and generating payloads among others.
These types of tools will help make your life a lot easier when it comes time to test each individual component that makes up an Android or iOS application.
Summing Up…
AppSec is a field that has grown in popularity and importance as mobile apps continue to become ubiquitous. With the rapidly growing number of app stores, it’s no surprise that more developers are jumping into the business.
However, this influx of new talent has not been matched with an equal increase inexperienced security professionals which means many companies have fallen victim to hacking scandals or data breaches involving their customer information.
Mobile app penetration testing helps keep your company safe from these risks by assessing any weaknesses or vulnerabilities before they can be exploited for nefarious purposes.
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