Tagged Questions

13
votes
3answers
498 views

Why do a lot of Android apps (like Linkedin) require many unrelated privileges?

I wanted to install the Linkedin app on my Android phone and I was shocked when it asked for nearly all possible permissions including reading all of my private data and calendar data. Why does any ...
1
vote
1answer
34 views

Starting point for Mobile Device Security particularly in a MDM setting?

I am looking for some good reference material (books, blogs, names, etc..) regarding Mobile Device Security. I am specifically interested in Corporate Mobile Device Management (MDM) where often ...
-4
votes
0answers
56 views

Trusteer Mobile Security SDK [closed]

I have been looking for some information on mobile security, especially about a specific solution provider by the name Trusteer. In their small introductory article on mobile security they mention: ...
8
votes
1answer
294 views

How do anti-virus apps for Android work?

There seems to be a lot of anti-virus apps for Android. On a desktop or server an anti-virus must run with super-user privileges, however I am pretty sure these mobile anti-viruses are running as an ...
1
vote
3answers
561 views

Encrypt data within mobile app and send to web service

I'm developing a mobile application for Android and iOs. What is best practice when it comes to data encryption within the mobile application which will be sent to a web service? Basically I will ...
3
votes
4answers
197 views

Strange android app … possibly a mass malware?

I started receiving on my android Samsung Galaxy note strange notifications in Mandarin (the language of the people of china). Once I click on the notification it opens my browser with a blank page ...
2
votes
1answer
149 views

Data remanence on mobile devices

The methods in which data should be deleted is strictly enforced by the DoD as well as others security sensitive organizations. However, there are complications with deleting data on an SSD. Given ...
7
votes
1answer
1k views

Android Device Encryption

I am trying to understand when using the default android device encryption in 4.0.4 ICS (AES-CBC 128Bit) how the Key Derivation Function works? That is how is the users decryption passcode transformed ...
4
votes
4answers
1k views

Track lost Android phone, if the thief is using it to access internet

I had a Samsung Galaxy S3, which got stolen recently but didn't have any built-in tracking software. But since the theft my friends often see 'me' on many online mobile chat applications. I conclude ...
5
votes
2answers
131 views

How much should I care about the iOS/Android version when pentesting mobile app?

Lets say I am performing penetration testing on mobile application, How significant is the version of operating system I am using while running the application? I.e. if I test mobile application ...
5
votes
1answer
249 views

Same-origin policy for file: URLs in Android browser?

When you load a file:// URL in an Android WebView or in the Android browser, what does it treat as the origin? What can the Javascript on that page access? Can it access other files in the same ...
4
votes
1answer
826 views

Encrypting data for Android mobile app

I am creating a mobile app for Android. This is my first mobile app by the way. I have decided to store data used in my app in a SQLite database in the target Android device. The data I am storing ...
1
vote
1answer
158 views

Pre boot authentication for Android phones

is there any way to have pre boot authentication on android phones? It would be nice if it would work with YubikeyONE's one time password mode.
0
votes
0answers
98 views

Which software is used to perform security tests on Android apps? [closed]

I want to replicate the security tests that researchers perform on Android applications (game, business, ...) for a homework project. Can you help me with some documentation? or help me with some ...
1
vote
2answers
240 views

Is it legal to store/send user's device's IMEI/MEID? [closed]

I'm working on an Android application with a "ban-system". The customer suggested using devices' IMEI/MEID as identifier and asked me about legal issues about that. Is it legal to store/send user's ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views

Android Apps accessing DNS settings?

I have my android device rooted, and only one RootTool app (Which is fairly popular and seems trust worthy to me, and which I use to tweak the phone) with root access. And I remember correctly setting ...
3
votes
1answer
74 views

Application communication monitoring

I am seeking a way to monitor communication between Android applications in order to detect their suspicious behaviour but I am not sure where to start the development process from. As far I have ...
0
votes
0answers
55 views

How to create an app for mobile website [closed]

Im trying to make an app that will basically be able to be downloaded directly from my mobile website. I honestly want to just make something so users can download the app to their phone and when they ...
7
votes
3answers
1k views

Does a working JTAG diagnostics port on Android phone add unnecessary risk?

Not enough people seem to know about JTAG outside the hacker and LEO communities but the short version is that JTAG allows anyone with physical access to your phone to chew their way right into it. ...
10
votes
3answers
541 views

Tools to help test the security of Android applications

What are some decent frameworks to test the security of Android applications? With frameworks I mean either software based to automatically scan these applications or a guide (like OWASP has for ...
0
votes
1answer
104 views

How to secure unprotected Telnet Server on Droid 3

I have a Droid 3 and for whatever reason it has a Telnet Server running on port 23. It requires no credentials and it has root permissions. It bothers me when I'm connected to wifi networks because my ...
1
vote
1answer
373 views

Fuzzing Android API

I am thinking of trying to make an Android API fuzzer (I never made a fuzzer before, but I understand the concepts), and I was wondering which API calls would be the most interesting ones to fuzz from ...
3
votes
2answers
395 views

List of Top security risk/attack scenarios for android application

WHat are the possible security risk/attack scenarios for android application. This is with regards to the OWASP top 10 Mobile Security threats discussed here: ...
3
votes
3answers
5k views

Is Android's Password Screen Lock Enough Data Theft Protection?

With the exception of the SD card data, is Android's built-in password/pin/pattern screen lock enough to protect data stored in your phone's internal storage in case of theft? Or can a thief simply ...
1
vote
3answers
881 views

Intercept data sent via bluetooth

I am trying to re-write a closed-source application, originally deployed on mobile devices, that lets you command and control a certain type of mechanical robots via bluetooth. The new application I ...
10
votes
5answers
2k views

Keyloggers on Smartphones?

I need to clarify my question. I'm wondering if there are any apps for smartphone that can log each 'keystroke' (i.e. key pressed on touchscreen) that a user does. Performing a google search brings up ...
3
votes
3answers
526 views

Android Pen Testing

I have been pen testing a random android app that uses POST method to send data to a remote server using HTTPS. I have set up a proxy and am able to intercept the traffic, however the POST method ...
10
votes
3answers
2k views

iOS/Android Pen-Test

This question might be vague, that is because I am not sure where to start. There are a lot of books and courses on pentest focusing on networks, systems, and OS such as windows, yet I haven't been ...
10
votes
4answers
2k views

What risk does Carrier IQ pose, exactly?

There has been a lot of discussion about Carrier IQ, monitoring software that is pre-installed on many Android phones. Many allegations have been thrown out. My questions: What exactly does Carrier ...
15
votes
1answer
821 views

Security implications of rooting your android phone

My android smart phone has fancy features that I can get if and only if I root it, e.g., free-wifi tethering or Cisco VPN (with group name/password). However, the procedure to root my phone has me ...
12
votes
3answers
261 views

Android security without updates

I have an android phone which, like many others, has quickly become unsupported and is not receiving any updates. At the same time there are publicly available exploits for privilege-escalation ...
8
votes
2answers
2k views

Is doing credit card transaction via 3G secure?

3G, GPRS or other mobile-based connection. Because it seems like it's easier to intercept, than, say, land-based connection or encrypted WiFi. If it matters, the transaction I want to perform is ...
3
votes
1answer
482 views

Which encryption algo should be best for an Android application [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Which type of encryption algorithms android supports, and which would be better? I am confused about to use of DES. Triple DES, RSA and AES algorithms, I think I ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views

how to secure Android Market public key

Android's security manual says that it is not safe to keep market public key just as a string and it should be hidden/encoded somehow. I am new to android Can somebody please provide me with example ...
4
votes
3answers
6k views

Which type of encryption algorithms android supports, and which would be better?

I read this documentation, and I have written an algo to encrypt and decrypt a string. But I don't know how many types of algorithms android supports. Regarding DES and AES (As wiki documentation) ...
12
votes
5answers
1k views

Android API/development security pitfalls

What are the most important security issues that developers of Android apps need to know about? What are the biggest pitfalls or kinds of vulnerabilities that they need to watch out for? One ...
13
votes
5answers
2k views

Best practices for securing an android device

Does anyone have any suggestions on securing an Android device? I'm not particularly interested in enterprise level software - I'm looking to secure my own ZTE Blade phone which has a lot of personal ...
8
votes
4answers
3k views

Any useful tools for Android source code review? [closed]

I'm wondering if anyone has some recommendations for Android source code review which is Java based. For example, reviewing an Android app for security issues. Bonus for being F/OSS. Fortify seems ...
7
votes
1answer
965 views

How should I protect in-app Android payments when using a separate server?

I am currently implementing Android in-app payments, and am wondering what attack vectors I should look out for. I have a simple application to view server-generated content. I want to allow the user ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views

3DES vs DES for VPN connections

I'm trying to get Android 2.1 phones to connect to our corporate VPN, but it would appear they only support DES rather than 3DES for encryption. Is it safe to use DES, am I going to get hacked if I ...