Mobile App Attack Surface Reduction
In cybersecurity, Mobile App Attack Surface Reduction is the process of minimizing the number of potential entry points and vulnerabilities that an attacker could use to compromise a mobile application.
Here's a breakdown of what that means:
Attack Surface: The attack surface of a mobile app includes all the points where a user or an attacker can interact with it. This can include:
The app's user interface
APIs the app communicates with
Data storage
Network connections
Permissions the app requests
Reduction: Reducing the attack surface involves decreasing the number of potential entry points, which makes it harder for attackers to find and exploit vulnerabilities.
By reducing the attack surface, developers can significantly improve the security of their mobile applications.
ThreatNG can contribute to the reduction of mobile app attack surface in the following manner:
External Discovery: ThreatNG discovers mobile apps in various marketplaces, providing organizations with a comprehensive view of their mobile app presence. This is the first step in understanding the potential attack surface associated with their mobile apps.
External Assessment: ThreatNG assesses mobile apps for various exposures that contribute to the attack surface:
Authentication/Authorization Issues: ThreatNG identifies Authentication/Authorization Tokens & Keys and Authentication Credentials within mobile apps. Exposed or hardcoded credentials and tokens represent vulnerabilities that increase the attack surface. By detecting these, ThreatNG helps organizations eliminate these attack vectors.
Data Exposure: ThreatNG's ability to find Service Account/Key Files and Private Keys (Cryptography) within mobile apps is crucial. These represent sensitive data exposures that an attacker could exploit. Identifying and removing these reduces the risk of data breaches.
Reporting: ThreatNG reports its findings on mobile app exposures. These reports provide organizations with actionable insights to reduce the attack surface of their mobile apps by highlighting specific vulnerabilities that need to be addressed.
Continuous Monitoring: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring helps organizations maintain a reduced attack surface over time. By detecting new exposures in mobile apps, organizations can quickly respond and prevent attackers from exploiting them.
Investigation Modules: ThreatNG's investigation modules are essential for identifying and understanding potential attack vectors:
Mobile Application Discovery: This module directly identifies elements of the attack surface by discovering mobile apps and analyzing their contents for security-sensitive information.
Intelligence Repositories: ThreatNG's intelligence repositories provide valuable context for reducing the attack surface. By providing data on known vulnerabilities and exposures found in other mobile apps, organizations can proactively address similar issues in their apps.
Works with Complementary Solutions: ThreatNG's capabilities can be used alongside other mobile app security tools to achieve a more comprehensive attack surface reduction strategy.
Examples of ThreatNG Helping:
ThreatNG can help an organization discover and eliminate exposed API keys in a mobile app, reducing the risk of unauthorized access to backend systems.
ThreatNG can identify mobile apps with hardcoded credentials, prompting the organization to remove them and implement secure authentication mechanisms.
ThreatNG can detect mobile apps that request excessive permissions. This allows the organization to modify the app to request only necessary permissions, thus reducing the potential impact of a compromise.
Examples of ThreatNG Working with Complementary Solutions:
ThreatNG's identification of potential vulnerabilities in mobile apps can be used to prioritize more in-depth analysis using static analysis or dynamic analysis tools, further refining attack surface reduction efforts.
ThreatNG's findings can be integrated into a secure development lifecycle (SDLC) to ensure that attack surface reduction is considered throughout the mobile app development process.
