Mobile App Vulnerabilities: The astronomical growth in mobile app usage has evidently and undeniably changed economies worldwide. But this has also been paralleled by a concerning rise in associated security vulnerabilities.
Businesses require adequate resources and guidance to protect their mobile applications effectively. But it is more challenging compared to web application security, and even the pool of skilled security engineers in this domain is limited.
It requires advanced security skills, including logic, reverse engineering, penetration testing, and a functional knowledge of communication protocols like secure data transfer, as well as addressing device-specific vulnerabilities.
But first, your developers should be acquainted with the best security practices and the top OWASP mobile risks. This serves as an excellent starting point, outlining common vulnerabilities and providing actionable guidance for mitigation.
Let’s explore the top five trending security risks for mobile applications in this brisk article.
Top Mobile App Vulnerabilities:
Mobile vulnerabilities can lead to serious risks, such as data breaches, unauthorized access, and malicious attacks. Therefore, identifying and addressing these weaknesses is critical for protecting both the app and its users. Let’s dive deeper.
Mobile vulnerabilities can lead to serious risks, such as data breaches, unauthorized access, and malicious attacks. Therefore, identifying and addressing these weaknesses through vulnerability management or good PTaaS platforms is critical for protecting both the app and its users. Let’s dive deeper.
Improper Credential Usage:
Improper credential usage is a major security risk for mobile applications. It can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, identity theft, and fraud. Because when an attacker obtains a user’s login credentials, they can impersonate the user and access their accounts, potentially leading to stolen personal information, unauthorized purchases, or even financial fraud.
Attack vectors that can be used to exploit improper credential usage include phishing attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and brute-force attacks.
You should avoid hardcoded credentials and handle user credentials properly, such as encrypting them, not storing them on the device, and using strong authentication instead.
Penetration testing can help identify vulnerabilities associated with improper credential usage, such as weak passwords, hardcoded credentials, and insecure storage of credentials.
Inadequate Supply Chain Security:
Inadequate supply chain security is also an enormous security risk because attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in the development process to inject malicious code into mobile apps. And this can allow attackers to steal data, spy on users, or take control of devices.
Attack vectors that can be used to exploit inadequate supply chain security include malicious code injection (via compromised libraries or open-source components) and supply chain attacks (compromising the build server or tampering with the app store).
You can strengthen the supply chain security of your mobile application by implementing secure coding practices, conducting thorough code reviews, testing throughout development, and using trusted libraries and components. And you should also actively monitor for vulnerabilities through security assessments, including penetration testing, to identify issues such as malicious code injections or compromised components.
Insecure Authentication/Authorization:
Insecure authentication and authorization is another security risk for mobile applications. If implemented poorly, it can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data and functionality, which can enable attackers to impersonate users, manipulate data, or even gain complete control of the app.
Attack vectors that can be used to exploit insecure authentication/authorization include weak or easily guessable passwords, lack of multi-factor authentication, session hijacking, and exploiting vulnerabilities in authentication and authorization mechanisms.
To strengthen the security of your mobile application, implement strong authentication mechanisms like multi-factor and biometric authentication, ensure secure session management, and use robust authorization controls.
This should also be part of regular security assessments, including penetration testing and code reviews, to identify both known and unknown vulnerabilities in authentication and authorization processes, such as weak password policies or authorization bypasses.
Insufficient Input/Output Validation:
Insufficient input/output validation is also a major security risk, according to OWASP. This issue can let attackers exploit vulnerabilities in the application’s input and output handling, potentially leading to data corruption, crashes, or even remote code execution.
Popular attack vectors like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and command injection are often used by malicious actors to exploit these weaknesses.
You must implement strict input validation and sanitization on all user-supplied data, as well as output encoding to prevent malicious scripts from executing. Again, regular security assessments of all data handling processes, including penetration testing, can greatly help identify related vulnerabilities and thwart attacks, such as unexpected data or cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
Insecure Communication:
Insecure communication is also a trending security risk in the OWASP Top 10 mobile risks, allowing attackers to intercept sensitive data transmitted between the app and backend servers. This is the leading cause for data breaches, privacy violations, and unauthorized access to the app’s functionality.
Hackers exploit insecure communication channels through man-in-the-middle attacks, eavesdropping, and data tampering.
You should implement secure communication protocols, such as HTTPS and end-to-end encryption, and ensure proper certificate validation. Automated penetration testing can easily help identify vulnerabilities in communication channels and protocols to address any weaknesses that could otherwise be exploited by attackers.
Recommended: Integrating Cloud Security
Harden Your Mobile App Security with Penetration Testing:
Mobile application penetration testing strengthens your security and protects sensitive data and app features from hackers.
This systematic process thoroughly examines your mobile app to find vulnerabilities and weaknesses. It tests all parts of the app, like its code, data storage, network connections, structure, and login systems.
Siemba offers offensive security solutions with a Penetration testing as a Service (PTaaS) platform, providing an automated vulnerability scanning engine with advanced detection capabilities and a team of experienced security engineers for manual penetration testing.
Our team of qualified security engineers actively seeks out and exploits vulnerabilities in your mobile app during the penetration testing process. Think of it as a simulated attack, where our experts act like hackers to assess your app’s resilience against threats like unauthorized access, data leaks, and tampering.
For more details, get in touch with us today!
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