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 (12 chapters)
11
Index

Summary

Android is a modern operating system where security is built in the platform. As we learned in this chapter, the Linux kernel, with its process isolation, provides the basis of Android's security model. Each application, along with its application data, is isolated from other processes. At the application level, components talk to each other using Intents and need to have appropriate privileges to call other components. These permissions are enforced in the Linux kernel that has stood the test of time as a secure multiuser operating system. Developers have a comprehensive set of crypto APIs that secure user data.

With this basic knowledge of the Android platform, let's march to the next chapter and understand application components and inter-component communication from a security standpoint. Good luck!