Book Image

Android Application Security Essentials

By : Pragati Rai
Book Image

Android Application Security Essentials

By: Pragati Rai

Overview of this book

In today's techno-savvy world, more and more parts of our lives are going digital, and all this information is accessible anytime and anywhere using mobile devices. It is of the utmost importance that you understand and implement security in your apps that will reduce the likelihood of hazards that will wreck your users' experience. "Android Application Security Essentials" takes a deep look into Android security from kernel to the application level, with practical hands-on examples, illustrations, and everyday use cases. This book will show you how to overcome the challenge of getting the security of your applications right. "Android Application Security Essentials" will show you how to secure your Android applications and data. It will equip you with tricks and tips that will come in handy as you develop your applications.We will start by learning the overall security architecture of the Android stack. Securing components with permissions, defining security in a manifest file, cryptographic algorithms and protocols on the Android stack, secure storage, security focused testing, and protecting enterprise data on your device is then also discussed in detail. You will also learn how to be security-aware when integrating newer technologies like NFC and mobile payments into your Android applications. At the end of this book, you will understand Android security at the system level all the way to the nitty-gritty details of application security for securing your Android applications.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Android Application Security Essentials
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Authentication


Authentication is the act of identifying an entity. In our case, authentication usually relates to identifying a person. The current method of authentication is by using a username and password. Since, passwords are complicated and are hard to type on a small device, phone number and PIN are used for authenticating a user.

Two-factor authentication

The most common approach today is two-factor authentication. This is based on the theory that to identify a person uniquely, a person should provide two of the following three identifiers:

  • Something that a user has; this includes a digital signature, security tokens, phone, tag, and so on

  • Something that a user knows; this includes passwords, secrets, PIN, or an answer to a question that only the user is expected to know

  • Something that a user is; examples include retina scan, fingerprints, and facial recognition

An example of two-factor authentication is logging in by using username/password or phone/PIN followed by entering a secret code...