What is Penetration Testing?

Penetration testing (commonly abbreviated as pen-testing) is the practice of launching authorized, simulated attacks on computer systems, networks or applications to expose potential security weaknesses. This type of testing is usually conducted by highly skilled attackers who have special tools and techniques to attempt to defeat an application's security controls. Penetration tests are differentiated from vulnerability scans by the level of knowledge and skill required to conduct them, as well as the types of techniques used.

Mobile Application Penetration Testing

Mobile penetration testing has evolved over time to meet an organization's security assessment requirements. The goal of a mobile penetration test is to determine the vulnerabilities within the mobile applications and the platform they run on. The testing is performed through manual tests, automated testing tools, and combined methodology where necessary.

Mobile application testers have an understanding of different vulnerabilities commonly found in mobile technologies including but not limited to:

White box testing techniques show how easily an application can be reverse-engineered.

Black box testing techniques that illustrate how easy an attacker can intercept the data being transmitted by the device or over the network

Methods of cryptography attacks to exploit weak algorithms and insecure implementations of cryptographic protocols

Although there are many ways to conduct a penetration test on mobile applications, each tester has his/her own personal style and methodologies.

Mobile Penetration Testing Methodology

The penetration testing methodology is as follows:

Attack the application from a black-box perspective, performing a manual review of design, functionality, and coding to find vulnerabilities at the mobile application level.

Perform Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) on the application to discover vulnerabilities at the web services level, including APIs.

Utilize unique toolsets and environments to simulate real-world attack scenarios used by black hat hackers, with a focus on social engineering.

Identify authentication issues within Mobile applications, common mistakes developers make when implementing passwords.

The goal here is to find security problems such as missing encryption or authentication mechanisms that could be exploited by a hacker.

What Happens During Mobile Application Penetration Testing?

Mobile penetration testing allows you to identify security risks associated with mobile applications that are accessible to end-users. Risks include data loss, authentication bypass, and sensitive data exposure.

After the tester has conducted his/her analysis, he will compile a list of vulnerabilities discovered during the process including details on how the vulnerability can be exploited along with mitigation and best practices to follow.

It is critical that organizations and developers use the results of the mobile penetration test to fix identified vulnerabilities as soon as possible, applying new security patches and updates.

Importance of Mobile Application Penetration Testing

Mobile App Security is a rapidly growing area that needs to be properly addressed. These tests are used to identify issues that could put the organization at risk of breaches, data loss, or malware infections. After performing the test on your application, you will have an understanding of what vulnerabilities are present in the mobile app and how an attacker can exploit them. If your mobile app has backend components, it is important to test those as well in order to identify vulnerabilities that may exist in the web services used by your application. This also includes APIs and other communication channels that transmit data between different mobile apps or devices

A penetration test will help you understand what security measures your competitors are taking. This information will be helpful when making decisions on what additional security measures to implement into your mobile app development process, ensuring data protection and user privacy. By having the ability to provide evidence that the appropriate security controls have been implemented, you can demonstrate compliance with industry-specific security standards.

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