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

Symmetric key cryptography


The symmetric key cryptography is based on a secret key that is the same for both parties. The same key is used for both encryption and decryption. This is a problem compared to the public key cryptography, as it is required to exchange the secret keys securely by some means. If an eavesdropper gets hold of the key, the security of the system is defeated.

Symmetric key is much faster than a public key and is ideal when encrypting/decrypting large chunks of data. Security of a symmetric key algorithm is based on the length of the key.

Stream cipher

A stream cipher is a type of a symmetric key cryptography where each bit or byte of data is encrypted individually with a stream of random bits called a key stream. Usually, each bit or byte is XORed (Exclusive OR) with a key stream. The length of the key stream is the same as the length of data. The security of a stream cipher depends upon the randomness of the key stream. If the same key stream is used for encrypting multiple...