The Anatomy of a Mobile Security Pentest

Mobile is the latest battleground for cybersecurity. Vulnerabilities can lie within mobile apps themselves, acting as gateways for malicious actors and malware to exploit. Staying ahead of these ever-evolving mobile security threats requires constant vigilance and a proactive approach. Penetration testing (pentesting) is a critical step in securing an application, meticulously dissecting an app's inner workings to identify vulnerabilities before bad actors can.

Security pentesting exercises vary wildly in both scope and frequency from organization to organization, from semi-annual major cross-team pentesting events to singular mobile app assessments at specific app release stages or for adhoc standards compliance checks. For a typical mobile pentest that includes an iOS and Android binary, they are approximately 2 weeks (10 business days) long. This article walks through the 10-day mobile app pentesting timeline of a typical test run. Discover the intricate details of pentesting that contribute to its extended duration and specialized skill set needs, plus how automation can greatly accelerate the work of mobile security teams.

A 10-Day Journey Through Mobile App Pentesting

Here's a breakdown of a typical mobile app pentesting process, highlighting the key activities that unfold throughout the two-week period:

Day 1-2

Reconnaissance & Discovery

Planning the Mission: The initial phase sets the stage. Testers collaborate with developers and product owners to define objectives, collect binaries, understand core app functionalities, and gather backend needs such as test login credentials and sample user input data. This phase also includes keyword discovery, where sensitive user data such as personal or payment information is identified, as they can be involved in vulnerabilities that testers are looking for.

Days 3-4

Unveiling the App's Inner Workings

Static Binary Analysis: Pentesters manually delve into the app's code using specialized tools like JADX, IDA Pro, Hopper and Ghidra. Here, they meticulously inspect third-party libraries, SDKs used, configuration settings, and encoded data within the app to identify potential security flaws.

Environment Setup: The testing environment takes shape as testers procure and configure a diverse range of mobile devices with varying operating systems, including some that must be jailbroken or rooted (depending on testing scope). The app is then installed and exercised in typical use fashion.

Days 5-7

Data at Rest and in Motion

Data at Rest Analysis: Testers now focus on data security. They analyze how the app stores data on the device itself, scrutinizing files, databases, and any static data accessible.

Data in Transit Analysis: The team then moves to how data travels. Network traffic is monitored using intercepting proxies to analyze communication with backend APIs, inter-device app communication, and potential vulnerabilities that could lead to attacks or data breaches.

Days 8-9

Thinking Like an Attacker

Reverse Engineering: This phase involves advanced techniques. Testers employ reverse engineering methodologies to bypass security controls and simulate potential attacks. This allows them to test possible vulnerabilities and exploits that could be leveraged by malicious actors.

Day 10

Compile Findings

Documentation & Reporting: The final stage involves crafting comprehensive reports with actionable insights. Technical details are presented for developers to investigate and remediate vulnerabilities, while AppSec compliance teams receive reports that address internal or industry security standards. Once reviewed and signed off, the final report is delivered, marking the completion of the pentesting process.

The Power of Automation

While this 10-day breakdown showcases the importance and intricacies of mobile app pentesting, it also highlights its time-consuming nature. While crucial for security, the time commitment can be a challenge. This is where security testing automation can be of great benefit. Automation accelerates mundane, repetitive setup and baseline security testing so that skilled pentesters can focus their time on more advanced testing techniques.

The Corellium mobile security testing platform includes both MATRIX™ (mobile automated testing and reporting interface) technology and a powerful pentesting toolbox for advanced manual security testing work and remediation development.

Here’s how Corellium simplifies the work of mobile security testers and can save businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

Lower Costs – Unlike other solutions and services that are priced per-test or per-app, Corellium provides a cost efficient “all-you-can-test” pricing model.
Accelerate Testing – Alleviate up to 50% of the mundane, routine work required of pentesters for every test run. Execute hundreds of security tests in minutes.
Mitigate Risks – Outsourcing to service providers introduces risks for your mobile app IP and security policies, while Corellium empowers you to do everything in-house.
Increase Consistency – Establish base-line test reports to increase test coverage consistency and reproducibility, and more easily identify security vulnerability regressions.
Test Continuously – Incorporate continuous security testing into your CI/CD flows to shift security left and achieve DevSecOps for mobile.
Facilitate Compliance – Automatically generated AppSec reporting facilitates standards adherence and compliance submissions that are otherwise cumbersome and time consuming.

To learn more about Corellium, including trying out our MATRIX savings calculator, visit corellium.com/matrix or set up a meeting today.