Home Technology Android Penetration Testing: An Empowered Cyber Security Assessment

Android Penetration Testing: An Empowered Cyber Security Assessment

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Android Penetration Testing

The cyber security community has seen a sharp increase in the number of Android devices being used for malicious purposes. This is concerning because these devices are not as easy to control or monitor, making them more dangerous than their counterparts. There are many reasons that this may be happening, but one reason is that people do not understand how to use their devices securely and responsibly. In this blog post, we will explore what it means to test an Android device for vulnerabilities and some ways you can protect your data from unauthorized access; all while maintaining usability.

What is Android Penetration Testing?

Android penetration testing is the process of testing an Android OS-based application against coding errors, security loopholes, vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations. The aim of an Android pentest is to discover and fix potential vulnerabilities in time before any hacker finds it out and takes advantage of it to hack into an application and steal the sensitive user information stored in it. The process of Android pentesting involves vulnerability scans, intrusive and non-intrusive network scans, and social engineering assessments.

Why Android Penetration Testing is Important?

As the number of Android users increases, it becomes more important to protect these devices from hackers and vulnerabilities. This is because an unprotected device can lead to a large amount of data being compromised very easily. In fact, Android penetration testing has become so popular that a single-day company offering this type of service raised $120 million in its first round of funding recently.

Benefits of Android Penetration Testing

Android penetration testing offers three main benefits:

  1. Prevents Hackers – If you have developed an application for your business or run a non-profit organization using the money collected through donations, then it becomes imperative to test your app before making it available on Google Play Store as well other third-party stores. Otherwise, there is a chance your app will be hacked and the sensitive user information stored in it compromised.
  2. Protects User’s Data – Even if you have not developed an application, but use Android devices for personal or business purposes there is always a threat of hackers trying to access private data on your device like bank account details, passwords, etc. By running regular penetration testing on all your apps installed on your phone/tablet, you can prevent this risk from happening.
  3. Increases Your App’s Performance – There are several reasons why Android applications run slower than required; some common ones include vulnerabilities that allow attackers to read files without permission, allowing them to steal valuable resources necessary for smooth functioning of the application (network bandwidth usage)., which finally affect performance negatively by reducing the speed of data processing.

What is an Android Penetration Testing Framework?

As we mentioned earlier, there are three main benefits to running penetration testing on all your apps and devices. However, it can be time-consuming and expensive for large organizations as they need to hire specialized people capable of carrying out such assessments with accuracy and thoroughness. To avoid this problem, companies have started using automated tools that use different techniques like dynamic analysis (running an app in a real-time environment), static code analysis (performing checks without actually executing the application), etc., which also help find vulnerabilities more quickly than manual assessment. These tools perform scanning at both levels – system level as well as application-level – so you do not miss any loophole or issue.

The automated security assessment of Android applications is possible through an Application Security Testing (AST) framework. An AST framework performs penetration testing on a device like your phone/tablet and the apps installed on it, and reports back to you with all vulnerabilities found including coding errors that can lead to successful hacking attempts by hackers. The tools come pre-configured with various rulesets for different types of assessments – white box as well as a black box – so there is no need to manually configure them before use. As mentioned earlier, some frameworks perform both dynamic as well as static code analysis making their results even more accurate than those provided by manual testers or web security testing companies who charge high prices for such assessments. And finally, these frameworks are capable of performing checks on all apps installed on your device, so you do not need to spend time doing it yourself.

Tools for Android Penetration Testing

There are a large number of AST frameworks available, even some free ones. A few popular tools that you can use to perform Android penetration testing on your device or an app include:

  • AppChecker – This is a commercial tool from eEye Digital Security and offers both automated as well as manual white box assessments for different types of vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS Cross-Site Scripting attacks, etc., which make it extremely valuable during the development stage when debugging errors in applications becomes necessary. The tool also provides plug-ins based on Selenium technology so you do not need programming knowledge to automate black-box tests using this powerful framework.
  • CERT Tapioca – CERT is a non-profit organization that is popularly known for developing the CERT Basic Fuzzing Framework. This tool has been developed by Google and offers automated black-box assessments on both Android apps as well as system applications. The results are extremely accurate, thanks to its capability of handling even the smallest details like permissions granted to every app installed on your device.
  • AppMon – Developed by OWASP, AppMon performs dynamic testing without actually executing an application so there is no need for you to install or configure anything before using it. You can choose from different plug-ins available in this framework depending upon what type of vulnerability testing you wish to carry out – SQL, XSS attacks, etc. It can also be integrated with other tools like OWASP ZAP for effective testing.
  • Cobra – Cobra is a security assessment framework developed by OWASP that allows penetration testers to test Android apps on both real devices as well as emulators using dynamic and static code analysis, thus making the results extremely accurate. It has an amazing capability of checking native libraries in addition to Java source code so you get more detailed reports without wasting too much time analyzing them manually. You can easily integrate this tool with IDA Pro or HexRays decompiler for reverse engineering purposes, while its plug-ins are available even in open source platforms such as Github.

Conclusion

Android penetration testing is a powerful weapon in the arsenal of cybersecurity experts. It provides an empowering assessment that can be used to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities before they are exploited by malicious actors or cybercriminals.