Mobile Application Penetration Testing

Mobile Application Penetration Testing

by Vijay Kumar Velu
Released March 2016
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781785883378

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Book description

Explore real-world threat scenarios, attacks on mobile applications, and ways to counter them

About This Book

  • Gain insights into the current threat landscape of mobile applications in particular
  • Explore the different options that are available on mobile platforms and prevent circumventions made by attackers
  • This is a step-by-step guide to setting up your own mobile penetration testing environment

Who This Book Is For

If you are a mobile application evangelist, mobile application developer, information security practitioner, penetration tester on infrastructure web applications, an application security professional, or someone who wants to learn mobile application security as a career, then this book is for you. This book will provide you with all the skills you need to get started with Android and iOS pen-testing.

What You Will Learn

  • Gain an in-depth understanding of Android and iOS architecture and the latest changes
  • Discover how to work with different tool suites to assess any application
  • Develop different strategies and techniques to connect to a mobile device
  • Create a foundation for mobile application security principles
  • Grasp techniques to attack different components of an Android device and the different functionalities of an iOS device
  • Get to know secure development strategies for both iOS and Android applications
  • Gain an understanding of threat modeling mobile applications
  • Get an in-depth understanding of both Android and iOS implementation vulnerabilities and how to provide counter-measures while developing a mobile app

In Detail

Mobile security has come a long way over the last few years. It has transitioned from "should it be done?" to "it must be done!"Alongside the growing number of devises and applications, there is also a growth in the volume of Personally identifiable information (PII), Financial Data, and much more. This data needs to be secured.

This is why Pen-testing is so important to modern application developers. You need to know how to secure user data, and find vulnerabilities and loopholes in your application that might lead to security breaches.

This book gives you the necessary skills to security test your mobile applications as a beginner, developer, or security practitioner. You'll start by discovering the internal components of an Android and an iOS application. Moving ahead, you'll understand the inter-process working of these applications. Then you'll set up a test environment for this application using various tools to identify the loopholes and vulnerabilities in the structure of the applications. Finally, after collecting all information about these security loop holes, we'll start securing our applications from these threats.

Style and approach

This is an easy-to-follow guide full of hands-on examples of real-world attack simulations. Each topic is explained in context with respect to testing, and for the more inquisitive, there are more details on the concepts and techniques used for different platforms.

Table of contents

  1. Mobile Application Penetration Testing
    1. Table of Contents
    2. Mobile Application Penetration Testing
    3. Credits
    4. About the Author
    5. About the Reviewers
    6. www.PacktPub.com
      1. eBooks, discount offers, and more
        1. Why subscribe?
    7. Preface
      1. What this book covers
      2. What you need for this book
      3. Who this book is for
      4. Conventions
      5. Reader feedback
      6. Customer support
        1. Downloading the color images of this book
        2. Errata
        3. Piracy
        4. Questions
    8. 1. The Mobile Application Security Landscape
      1. The smartphone market share
        1. The android operating system
        2. The iPhone operating system (iOS)
      2. Different types of mobile applications
        1. Native apps
        2. Mobile web apps
        3. Hybrid apps
      3. Public Android and iOS vulnerabilities
        1. Android vulnerabilities
        2. iOS vulnerabilities
      4. The key challenges in mobile application security
        1. The impact of mobile application security
        2. The need for mobile application penetration testing
          1. Current market reaction
      5. The mobile application penetration testing methodology
        1. Discovery
        2. Analysis/assessment
        3. Exploitation
        4. Reporting
      6. The OWASP mobile security project
      7. OWASP mobile top 10 risks
        1. Vulnerable applications to practice
      8. Summary
    9. 2. Snooping Around the Architecture
      1. The importance of architecture
      2. The Android architecture
        1. The Linux kernel
          1. Confusion between Linux and the Linux kernel
        2. Android runtime
        3. The java virtual machine
        4. The Dalvik virtual machine
          1. Zygote
        5. Core Java libraries
        6. ART
        7. Native libraries
        8. The application framework
        9. The applications layer
          1. Native Android or system apps
          2. User-installed or custom apps
          3. The Android software development kit
          4. Android application packages (APK)
            1. AndroidManifest.xml
              1. The structure of the Android manifest file
        10. Android application components
          1. Intent
          2. Activity
          3. Services
            1. Unbound or start services
            2. Bound service
          4. Broadcast receivers
          5. Content providers
        11. Android Debug Bridge
        12. Application sandboxing
        13. Application signing
        14. Secure inter-process communication
          1. The Binder process
        15. The Android permission model
        16. The Android application build process
        17. Android rooting
      3. iOS architecture
        1. Cocoa Touch
        2. Media
        3. Core services
        4. Core OS
      4. iOS SDK and Xcode
      5. iOS application programming languages
        1. Objective-C
          1. The Objective-C runtime
        2. Swift
      6. Understanding application states
      7. Apple's iOS security model
        1. Device-level security
        2. System-level security
          1. An introduction to the secure boot chain
          2. System software authorization
          3. Secure Enclave
            1. Touch ID
        3. Data-level security
          1. Data-protection classes
          2. Keychain data protection
      8. Changes in iOS 8 and 9
        1. Network-level security
        2. Application-level security
          1. Application code signing
        3. The iOS app sandbox
      9. iOS isolation
        1. Process isolation
        2. Filesystem isolation
        3. ASLR
        4. Stack protection (non-executable stack and heap)
      10. Hardware-level security
      11. iOS permissions
      12. The iOS application structure
      13. Jailbreaking
        1. Why jailbreak a device?
        2. Types of jailbreaks
          1. Untethered jailbreaks
          2. Tethered jailbreaks
          3. Semi-tethered jailbreaks
        3. Jailbreaking tools at a glance
      14. The Mach-O binary file format
        1. Inspecting a Mach-O binary
      15. Property lists
      16. Exploring the iOS filesystem
      17. Summary
    10. 3. Building a Test Environment
      1. Mobile app penetration testing environment setup
      2. Android Studio and SDK
        1. The Android SDK
      3. The Android Debug Bridge
        1. Connecting to the device
        2. Getting access to the device
        3. Installing an application to the device
        4. Extracting files from the device
        5. Storing files to the device
        6. Stopping the service
        7. Viewing the log information
        8. Sideloading apps
        9. Monkeyrunner
      4. Genymotion
        1. Creating an Android virtual emulator
        2. Installing an application to the Genymotion emulator
        3. Installing the vulnerable app to Genymotion
        4. Installing the Genymotion plugin to Android Studio
        5. ARM apps and Play Store in Genymotion
      5. Configuring the emulator for HTTP proxy
        1. Setting up the proxy in Wi-Fi settings
        2. Setting up the proxy on mobile carrier settings
      6. Google Nexus 5 – configuring the physical device
      7. The iOS SDK (Xcode)
      8. Setting up iPhone/iPad with necessary tools
        1. Cydia
          1. BigBoss tools
          2. Darwins CC tools
          3. iPA Installer
          4. Tcpdump
          5. iOS SSL kill-switch
          6. Cycript, Clutch, and class-dump
      9. SSH clients – PuTTy and WinSCP
        1. iFunbox at glance
        2. Accessing SSH without Wi-Fi
        3. Accessing SSH with Wi-Fi
        4. Installing DVIA to the device
        5. Configuring the HTTP proxy in Apple devices
      10. Emulator, simulators, and real devices
        1. Simulators
        2. Emulators
          1. Pros
          2. Cons
        3. Real devices
          1. Pros
          2. Cons
      11. Summary
    11. 4. Loading up – Mobile Pentesting Tools
      1. Android security tools
        1. APKAnalyser
        2. The drozer tool
          1. Installing drozer on Genymotion
        3. APKTool
          1. How to make apps debuggable?
        4. The dex2jar API
        5. JD-GUI
        6. Androguard
          1. Isn't Androguard only a malware analysis tool?
          2. Androguard's androlyze shell environment
          3. Automating the analysis of multiple files
        7. Introducing Java Debugger
          1. Debugging
          2. Attaching
          3. Installing Burp CA certificate to the device
        8. The list of other tools
      2. iOS security tools
        1. oTool
        2. SSL Kill Switch
        3. The keychain dumper
        4. LLDB
        5. Clutch
        6. Class-dump-z
        7. Instrumenting with Cycript
        8. Instrumentation using Frida
        9. Hopper
        10. Snoop-it
        11. Installing Burp CA certificate to an iOS device
      3. Summary
    12. 5. Building Attack Paths – Threat Modeling an Application
      1. Assets
      2. Threats
        1. Threat agents
      3. Vulnerabilities
      4. Risk
      5. Approach to threat models
      6. Threat modeling a mobile application
        1. Mobile application architecture
          1. Mobile applications and device data
          2. Identifying threat agents
          3. Modes of attacks
          4. Security controls
        2. How to create a threat model?
          1. The attacker view
          2. The device or system view
          3. Discovering potential threats
        3. Threat modeling methodologies
          1. STRIDE
          2. PASTA
          3. Trike
        4. Using STRIDE to classify threats
          1. Spoofing
          2. Tampering
          3. Repudiation
          4. Information disclosure
          5. Denial of service (DoS)
          6. Elevation of privilege
        5. A typical mobile application threat model
        6. Building attack plans and attack trees
          1. Attack scenarios
          2. A sample attack tree for a stolen or missing device
          3. A list of free tools
          4. A commercial tool
        7. Threat model outcomes
        8. Risk assessment models
          1. Business risk
          2. Technical risk
      7. Summary
    13. 6. Full Steam Ahead – Attacking Android Applications
      1. Setting up the target app
        1. Backend server setup
      2. Analyzing the app using drozer
      3. Android components
        1. Attacking activities
        2. Attacking services
        3. Attacking broadcast receivers
        4. Attacking content providers
      4. Attacking WebViews
      5. SQL injection
      6. Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks
        1. SSL pinning
      7. Hardcoded credentials
      8. Encryption and decryption on the client side
      9. Runtime manipulation using JDWP
      10. Storage/archive analysis
      11. Log analysis
      12. Assessing implementation vulnerabilities
      13. Binary patching
      14. Summary
    14. 7. Full Steam Ahead – Attacking iOS Applications
      1. Setting up the target
      2. Storage/archive analysis
        1. Plist files
        2. Client-side data stores
        3. The keychain data
        4. HTTP response caching
      3. Reverse engineering
        1. Extracting the class information
        2. Strings
        3. Memory management
        4. Stack smashing protection
      4. Static code analysis
        1. OpenURL schemes
      5. App patching using Hopper
      6. Hardcoded username and password
      7. Runtime manipulation using Cycript
        1. The Bypass login method
        2. Sensitive information in the memory
      8. Dumpdecrypted
      9. Client-side injections
        1. SQL injection
        2. UIWebView injections
      10. Man-in-the-Middle attacks
        1. Beating the SSL cert pinning
      11. Implementation vulnerabilities
        1. Pasteboard information leakage
        2. Keyboard logs
        3. App state preservation
      12. Building a remote tracer using LLDB
      13. Snoop-IT for assessment
      14. Summary
    15. 8. Securing Your Android and iOS Applications
      1. Secure by design
      2. Security mind map for developers (iOS and Android)
      3. Device level
        1. Platform (OS) level
          1. Screenshots/snapshots
          2. System caching and logs
          3. Cut, copy, and paste
          4. iOS cookie and keychains
            1. BinaryCookies
            2. Keychains
        2. Application level
          1. App storage protection
            1. Property lists/shared preferences
              1. Property lists in iOS
              2. Shared preferences in Android
            2. Database protection
            3. Application permissions
              1. Backup settings
              2. Disable debug
              3. Use the latest API version
              4. Securing Android components
              5. Securing activities
              6. Securing services
              7. Securing content providers
              8. Securing broadcast receivers
              9. Verify exported components
            4. Encryption
              1. iOS
              2. Android
              3. Key management
            5. Securing WebView
              1. iOS
              2. Android
            6. App caches
          2. Binary protection
            1. Jailbreak detection
              1. Filesystem-based detection
              2. API-based detection
            2. Root detection
              1. Command detection method
            3. Decompiling protection
            4. Code obfuscation
            5. Decryption protection
            6. ASLR/ARC
              1. Stack-smashing protection
              2. Runtime protection
            7. URLSchemes protection
            8. Client-side injection protection
            9. Anti-debug implementation
            10. Filesystem protection
            11. Anti-tamper implementation
      4. Network level
        1. Certificate pinning
        2. Cipher suites
        3. CFNetwork usage
        4. Secure caching
      5. Server level
        1. Authentication
        2. Authorization
        3. Input/output validations
        4. Injection flaws
        5. Session management
        6. Information leakage
      6. OWASP mobile app security checklist
        1. Mobile app developers checklist
      7. Secure coding best practices
        1. Android
        2. iOS
        3. Vendor-neutral advice
        4. Developer cheat sheet
        5. Developer policies
      8. Post-production protection
        1. Keeping up to date
      9. Summary
    16. Index

Product information

  • Title: Mobile Application Penetration Testing
  • Author(s): Vijay Kumar Velu
  • Release date: March 2016
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781785883378