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

Chapter 4. Defining the Application's Policy File

This chapter brings together all the learning we have done so far. We will use the application components, Intents, and permissions and put them all together to define our application's policy file. This policy file is called AndroidManifest.xml and is by far the most important file of an application. As you will see, this file is the place to define access control policy for your application and components. This is also the place to define application and component level specifics that the Android system will use to interact with your application.

The chapter begins with a discussion of AndroidManfiest.xml. We will discuss the two important tags: <manifest> and <application> that we have not discussed so far. Next, we will discuss the actions that we can perform in the manifest file such as declaring permission, sharing a process with other applications, external storage, and managing component visibility. The chapter closes with...