#mobileapplicationsecurity

Mobile apps are available through app distributors like App Store, Google Play store, etc. Big enterprises across the world have also adopted mobile apps to increase their sales. With so many cyber crimes happening these days, the mobile app security process is something that we need to look at. We need to have better mobile app development security to protect data on our mobile phones.

| Originally Published at: Top 10 Ways To Enhance Mobile App Security

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Mobile runtime application self-protection (RASP) is a security feature, acting as a component of a mobile application and monitoring as well as protecting against real-time malicious external threats. It intercepts all calls to the host system by itself and installs security in it, as per the requirements. RASP proactively manages the real threat of sophisticated malware. Mobile runtime application self-protection detects and prevents deceitful activities even before they can run, securing the app from both known and unknown attack vectors. Moreover, it neutralizes potential threats, strengthens mobile application security, and protects high-value transactions and sensitive data from hackers.

Mobile runtime application self-protection offers several benefits, such as avoid false positives, protection from many types of security risks, easy maintenance, easily adapt new standards, cloud support, and DevSecOps support. The constant cyber-attacks on industries such as manufacturing, retail, banking and financial, healthcare, and telecom are influencing the adoption of mobile runtime application self-protection solutions. Over 80% of organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported at least one cyber-attack in 2019. Moreover, the UAE registered around 2.4 million ransomware attacks in 2018.

As the world is becoming more tech-savvy and digital, every personal data of an individual is on his/her phone and in the various apps that are installed in the phone. So it becomes very much important to take care of the security aspect of the Mobile Applications also.

There are many problems related to app security but some of the common security issues are broken cryptography, poor authorization, improper handling of sessions etc. Amongst all data leakage because of storage of data in locations that are insecure. The main cause behind this is storing the data in a location where other apps have the access.

How to curb these issues?

Mobile applications communicate with their backend servers for a variety of reasons. This communication involves authentication, data transfer, and acknowledgements. Since these dialogues take place over networks, many aspects need to be considered from the security perspective. A list of six such issues is given below.

Internal Path Disclosure

A server may include the path to a resource when communicating with the application. Mentioning path would disclose a part of the server’s file system.

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Server Header Disclosure

Messages have a couple of sections: header and data. Header section provides information about the server and enclosed data. The server-related information may reveal information that would help attackers.

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Strict Transport Layer Security

A server can dictate if its mobile application shall communicate over non-secured connections. Allowing mobile apps to exchange messages using an insecure link poses security threats.

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Improper Session Handling

Ideally, a user session running on a server shall terminate when the user remains inactive for a long time. Keeping the session active has potential risks.

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Improper Error Handling

Servers show error messages when an error condition occurs. It is necessary to ensure that these messages do not disclose any sensitive information about the server’s file system or database.

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Displaying Stack Traces in Error Messages

Error messages may disclose internal functionality. This information could be used for malicious purpose. Attackers may breach an application’s security and steal data, delete the account, access confidential information etc.