Mobile devices have gone on to become increasingly popular at the workplace so too when it comes to attacking mobile apps. Based on research inputs nearly 46 % of organizations had an employee downloading a malicious application threatening data and network. Now the question is what is mobile App shielding and how it is going to help businesses that rely on mobile apps
One of the common forms of attacks that is becoming common is reverse engineering. It does pose a serious threat to customers and the business and it works in the following manner
- First the attackers go on to take an existing app and try to figure out the working. An example is the relationship between UI actions along with the API requests that the app generates.
- Then they go on to reverse engineer the code and design, looking for API keys and hard-coded secrets along with vulnerabilities that they can exploit if possible.
- The moment they come across a grey area, they either subvert the app’s security to develop a modified fake app to suit the purpose. They could also end up using the knowledge to create an app that impersonates genuine app traffic and connects directly to the API.
Such a type of attack is dangerous since it can be a tough one to detect in a lot of cases. Though in a few cases, it may go on to bypass the app completely negating any form of protection that you have. Hence it is better to be aware of these approaches and take application shielding measures accordingly.
The challenges with app hardening protection techniques
You can use a few app hardening techniques to safeguard your app from reverse engineering. It could be in the form of encryption or obfuscation that would make it easier for an attacker to expose the app’s logic and access API keys along with other areas. Though these techniques are effective, they may not be that much effective and some of the challenges that emerge are as follows
- Attackers are able to re-engineer the entire code- Most of the code can be re-engineered given enough time. Hardening tools may go on to test the patience of the attackers and encourage them to try another app. In addition, if an attacker uses a dynamic hacking tool, to attach to the app process they are likely to see the secrets that are available in motion.
- Device and channel integrity- Mobile devices are less secure than the servers as the API data channels also tend to be less secure. Since the mobile app in the device is running on a remote and outwit the control of the organization it is something that cannot be trusted. This makes it harder to protect in transit from the app against men-in-the-middle attacks. This makes sure that the app is operational on an uncompromised device.
To sum up things app shielding is a necessity when it comes to your mobile application. This ensures the optimum protection of your mobile phones.
