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

Permission protection levels


At the application level, Android security is based on permissions. Using this permission-based model, the Android system protects system resources, such as camera and Bluetooth, and application resources, such as files and components. An application should have privileges to act upon or use these resources. Any application intending to use these resources needs to declare to the user that it will be accessing these resources. For example, if an application will be sending and reading a SMS, it will need to declare android.permission.SEND_SMS and android.permission.READ_SMS in the manifest file.

Permissions are also an effective method for access control between applications. An application's manifest file contains a list of permissions. Any external application that wishes to access this application's resources should possess these permissions. This is discussed in greater detail in the next chapter.

All Android permissions are declared as constants in the Manifest...