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

Device administration capabilities


Starting with Android 2.2, Android has added increasing capabilities to make Android ready for enterprise. Each subsequent release has improved upon existing capabilities and added more to it. The following table lists when a specific enterprise capability was added in the Android stack. This section will focus on some of these capabilities:

Android release

Enterprise features

Froyo (release 2.2)

  • Password policy

  • Remote wipe

  • Remote locks

Gingerbread (release 2.3)

  • SIP support

Honeycomb (release 3.0)

  • Encryption and password policy for tablets

  • System encryption for tablets

Ice cream sandwich (release 4.0)

  • Extended system encryption, encryption and password policies to devices

  • Certificate management capabilities

  • VPN

  • Developer interfaces for SSL VPN

  • Facial recognition unlock

  • Network data usage monitoring

  • Offline e-mail searching

Device administration API

As illustrated in the preceding table, starting with Android 2.2, Android has continuously added support for...