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

Application policy use cases


This section discusses how to define the application policies using the manifest file. I have used use cases and we will discuss how to implement these use cases in the policy file.

Declaring application permissions

An application on the Android platform has to declare what resources it intends to use for proper functioning of the application. These are the permissions that are displayed to the user when they download the application. As discussed in Chapter 3, Permissions, an application can define custom permissions as well. Application permissions should be descriptive so that users can understand them. Also, as is the general rule with security, it is important to request the minimum permissions required.

Application permissions are declared in the manifest file by using the tag <uses-permission>. An example of a location-based manifest file that uses the GPS for retrieving location is shown in the following code snippet:

<uses-permissionandroid:name...