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

SSL/TLS


I was reading a very interesting research conducted by the students of the Leibniz University of Hannover and the Philipps University of Marburg, Germany, about MITM (man-in-the-middle) attacks on data in transit. The applications studied were using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocols to protect data over the network. Many of the applications were not using SSL/TLS properly, which resulted in vulnerability. Another interesting observation is that since the Android browser does not show the green padlock usually associated with the sites using SSL/TLS, users were not aware of the fact that they were using an insecure website. Check out the paper at http://www2.dcsec.uni-hannover.de/files/android/p50-fahl.pdf. I'm sure it will make an interesting read.

The preceding research brought to light the importance of implementing protocols correctly in the applications. This section introduces SSL/TLS and some notes to implement it correctly. Developed by Netscape...