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

Application architecture


These days there are three ways to write an application: native, mobile web, and hybrid.

A native application is specific to a platform and is written in a language that is native to the platform. These applications use native tools and SDKs that are provided by the operating system manufacturer. These applications have much better performance and can use native features and APIs for secure data storage. The following figure illustrates how native and hybrid applications work:

A mobile web application is written with web technologies, such as HTML5, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, and ASP.net. These applications are cross-platform and once they are written they can be run on any platform that has a browser. They provide the ease of centralized updates but inherit all the browser vulnerabilities. Be aware of the browser exploits when you write a mobile web application. Browser code is easily available for everyone to see. Also, URL exploits are a risk in such applications, as...