Mobile Application Penetration Testing Service for IoS/Android Devices
Mobile application pentesting is a test used to determine the vulnerabilities that might lead to security breaches for applications and backend APIs.
Possible security breaches could cause many risks, including reputation loss, data loss, and legal problems. In addition, these risks could lead to irrecoverable losses for most companies’.
Infrastructures that are used for mobile applications include significant risks which are overlooked most times. During the tests our experts undertake, a variety of critical vulnerabilities has been detected only in mobile applications of a lot of organizations.
As S4E Team, we have performed mobile application penetration testing service for years. You can write to us regarding your mobile application pentesting request or continue reading for more information.
Our Certification
You can find our cybersecurity experts’ certification related to mobile application pentesting below. These mobile application pentesting certifications show the level of accomplishment and perseverance for our work. Please check our achievements and certifications from here.
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Mobile Application
Pentesting Methodology
of Security for Everyone
What are The Mobile Application Risks?
Data Breach
Your users trust you and your brand with their data. The biggest problem for your company would be leak of data.
Legal Issues
You can be the subject of different punitive sanctions according to the regulations of your country.
Reputational Damage
Reputational damage may result in loss of trust in your company. Also, It causes loss of customers and finances. Recovery can be challenging.
Service Outages
If cyber attackers exploit some specific vulnerabilities, it may lead to service outages. In addition, it is much more costly to recover a system after a successful attack than finding and fixing vulnerabilities beforehand.
Data Losses
Even tiny weak points can cause data loss. You can receive consultancy from our cybersecurity expert team on deciding the best techniques to minimize possible data losses.
Mobile Application Pentesting Methodology of Security for Everyone
1. Detection of Mobile Application Penetration Test Scope / Initial Meeting
We listen to your needs and exchange information to ensure that the tests will be performed in the best way possible. Thus, scope, type, and necessary information are determined in the scoping meeting. You can see the section that is related to the scope determination for the tests by clicking here.
2. Discovery
In this step, our experts gather information using both active and passive methods. This step allows us to identify attack vectors that can be used in the following steps and evaluate the application from the hacker's point of view. You can find some of the main topics considered during the discovery phase of our mobile app pentesting methodology below.
- Application type (mobile web, local, cross-platform)
- Application mapping, evaluation of the app functions
- Determining the network protocols
- Determining the hardware used by the app
- Determining the 3rd party software, libraries, and frameworks (AWS, Azure, Firebase, etc.)
- Determining the permissions of the application
- Collecting information about the application by performing reverse engineering methods on applications
4. Exploitation
In this step, our pentest experts try to exploit the vulnerabilities by using information they gathered from a hacker's point of view. The primary purpose is to show the real risks. In this step, we attack apps and try to do some malicious things such as access to sensitive information owned by the company, run commands at the operating system level, bypass restrictions, upload a harmful file, etc.
In the exploitation step, Our cyber security experts use the necessary attack techniques without harming the systems to show what a malicious hacker can do in this step.
3. Analysis
There are three types of analysis for mobile application pentesting. Static, dynamic, and hybrid.
SAST (Static Application Security Testing): Static analysis is a series of tests performed without running an application. Source codes, files, and other data in the application are gathered without running the application. Analyzing the source code helps cybersecurity experts save time while understanding the application's functionality, revealing backend databases, gathering server information, finding used APIs, and analyzing technologies used in the app.
Dynamic Analysis (Dynamic Application Security Testing): Dynamic analysis is performed while the application is running. During dynamic analysis, attack scenarios from a hacker's point of view are simulated on the application. The information collected from the static analysis' results can be used during dynamic analysis. You can find some of the main topics evaluated in the dynamic analysis process of our mobile application pentesting methodology below.
- Backend detection of the application, API (SOAP/REST)
- Determining the behaviors of the application by forcing the application for errors
- Cryptography testing, checking for weaknesses with cryptography, brute force key attacks, hard-coded keys/secrets, other disclosed information.
- Web-based vulnerability scanning such as XSS, CSRF, SQL Injection, Command Injection, XML Injection, etc.
- Security tests related to application auth mechanism
- Security tests related to authorization processes of application
5. Reporting
During the reporting step of the mobile application penetration testing service, all founded vulnerabilities are presented with a special report. A mobile application pentesting report that S4E cybersecurity experts write will be a report that explains vulnerabilities in a simple language that developers can understand, which is supported by screenshots and includes special fields for managers.
The report will help calculate the total risks and plan the actions that need to be performed on the vulnerabilities.
This step is one of the most critical steps of mobile application pentesting. The report is the only output of the penetration test and includes all the necessary information to receive the maximum benefit.
Also, in some cases, we have a meeting where we go over the findings in the report.
You can find a sample of the mobile application pentest report from here.
Mobile Applications Security Vulnerabilities
If you are still reading this, you might have heard about OWASP (The Open Web Application Security Project). OWASP is a non-profit foundation that works on application security. They published a list that they collected from various areas on the ten most crucial mobile application vulnerabilities.
It would be beneficial to look at the list even though the vulnerabilities are not limited to listed below.
Improper Platform Usage
Every mobile application platform serves different mechanisms to keep the application secure for developers. If the developer does not use these security mechanisms properly, it may lead to vulnerabilities.
Insecure Data Storage
Mobile applications might store sensitive data(user passwords, cookies, location, error messages, personal information, credit cards, etc.) on devices storage. Although these storage spaces seem secure, they can be accessed in lots of different ways. That is why sensitive information needs to be kept with the best possible techniques.
Insecure Authentication
Authentication is the process of verifying who a user is. Insecure Authentication occurs if the user identifying mechanisms (password, one-time code, fingerprint, etc.) are configured or used in the wrong way.
Insufficient Cryptography
Critical data needs to be encrypted to prevent unwanted access. Strong encryption algorithms must be used correctly to minimize the interception risk from malicious applications or eavesdrops on the network.
Insecure Authorization
Insecure authorization vulnerability occurs when a hacker makes operations that need authorization in a mobile application or mobile application’s backend. This vulnerability can be tested clearly with the test users that have different privileges during the mobile application penetration testing.
Poor Code Quality
Minor errors in the development process of mobile applications do not affect the functionality of the software. However, hackers who use reverse engineering methods to open and investigate apps can use these minor errors. Mobile application penetration testing helps reveal these errors during static and dynamic analysis.
Code Tampering
Mobile applications are downloaded with theis codebases. Hackers could open these codes with reverse engineering methods, make changes and repack them. As a result, the new application will be running according to the hacker's changes against your will.
Reverse Engineering
Hackers scan for a vulnerability using reverse engineering methods in their local environment after downloading the targeted application. They can learn some critical data with this method. There are some obfuscation methods that should be used to make it harder.
Extraneous Functionality
Mobile applications may include unused code fragments in them. Even though these codes are harmless since they are not functioning, hackers can use them to learn some critical information about your mobile application for new attacks.
The full scope can be submitted by the organization that requested the test. However, we recommend choosing the scope together. Our expertise can ensure that all critical parts of the app are included in the mobile application pentest.
In some cases, the full scope may not be provided for mobile application penetration testing service. These types of security testings are called black-box penetration testings. In these tests, the client only gives the organization name, domain name, or the mobile application name for the scope.
What is the scope of mobile application penetration testing service?
In the initial meeting, mobile applications, components, and backends that will be tested are decided. This is called scope. While determining the scope, also the type of the test is determined. Schedule a 15-minute meeting with the S4E cybersecurity expert team to determine which test is suitable for you.
At least, following points must be decided to define a scope and start testing.:
- What environments does the app support, android/iOS or other?
- Application backend: If there is a backend, it's better to include it in the tests, but in some exceptional cases, a penetration test of only the mobile app can be performed.
- If there is a backend, is that environment a test or a prod? This is a vital question. Pentesters create lots of requests to detect edge cases in the app. Also, pentesters use tools that generate hundreds, sometimes thousands of new requests. This can cause slowdowns, creating lots of unuseful, or, in rare cases, data loss in prod environments. That is why the pentesters must be very careful in the prod environments. However, there is no need to be that careful in the test environments.
- Authorization / Validation: The test accounts in authorization and validation steps make penetration tests more efficient.
Schedule a 15-minute meeting with the S4E cybersecurity expert team to determine which test is suitable for you.
FAQFAQ About Mobile Application Penetration Testing Service
- A process to find out every information related to your app
- Finding vulnerabilities that can harm your system
- Best practice suggestions for a more secure environment
- A detailed report with finding, executive summary, fixing advice
- One regression test