Running head: SECURING NATIVE APPLICATIONS SECURING NATIVE APPLICATIONS 6 Securing Native Applications Name: Course: Institution: Date: Abstract This paper aims at discovering the methods of securing native mobile applications and the probable threats they can experience in the advancing world of technology. Any kind of software, ranging from desktop to mobile applications, is believed to have defects that can lead to susceptibilities. These weaknesses, when subjugated, may bring in threat to the integrity, privacy, and accessibility of the software. However, various security auditing strategies might aid to minimize at a specific degree the level of confidence these risks have. With the outburst of mobile applications for day to day activities such as checking email, social networks, news, managing bank accounts, ensuring a satisfactory level of application security becomes essential for the usage and reliance of mobile services. This research identifies the effective analysis factors that can help the daily mobile application users to identify mobile risks as well as a probable methodology to security audit mobile software applications. The advancement in information technology and applications has increased the access of sensitive information such as International Mobile Equipment Identity Number (IMEI) of device, credit and debit card information, location information and login credentials thus the need to secure vulnerable applications from authorized access. Introduction Mobile application expansion in various platforms is based on functional and non-functional rations. Different types of platforms exist to organize mobile applications with distinctive private policies (Jing, Ahn, Zhao & Hu, 2014). This paper aims at highlighting mobile application security for native apps such as navigation programs and social media, for instance, Waze and Twitter respectively, and the methodologies that help reduce these security threats. Analysis Blocks to Identify Mobile Risks There are several risks identified by where frequent faults are found and how they can be surfaced during an application security auditing. These risks are associated with different factors such as attack vectors, aggressive agents, weaknesses, technical impact, and business impact. To demonstrate, weak server-side controls regards the threats from a third-party mechanism like extremity servers necessary for most mobile applications (Jing, Ahn, Zhao & Hu, 2014). This threat includes defenseless server arrangement, authentication errors, session supervision flaw, and access control weaknesses. Further, insecure data storage regards the possible risks created by weaknesses on the data storage in the mobile device which can lead to information leakage. Inadequate transport layer protection recognizes assailability such as non-encrypted transport layer communications, the application of susceptible cryptographic algorithms and recognition of illegal ...

1. Running head: SECURING NATIVE APPLICATIONS
SECURING NATIVE APPLICATIONS 6
Securing Native Applications
Name:
Course:
Institution:
Date:
Abstract
This paper aims at discovering the methods of securing
native mobile applications and the probable threats they can
experience in the advancing world of technology. Any kind of
software, ranging from desktop to mobile applications, is
believed to have defects that can lead to susceptibilities. These
weaknesses, when subjugated, may bring in threat to the
integrity, privacy, and accessibility of the software. However,
various security auditing strategies might aid to minimize at a

2. specific degree the level of confidence these risks have. With
the outburst of mobile applications for day to day activities
such as checking email, social networks, news, managing bank
accounts, ensuring a satisfactory level of application security
becomes essential for the usage and reliance of mobile services.
This research identifies the effective analysis factors that can
help the daily mobile application users to identify mobile risks
as well as a probable methodology to security audit mobile
software applications. The advancement in information
technology and applications has increased the access of
sensitive information such as International Mobile Equipment
Identity Number (IMEI) of device, credit and debit card
information, location information and login credentials thus the
need to secure vulnerable applications from authorized access.
Introduction
Mobile application expansion in various platforms is based
on functional and non-functional rations. Different types of
platforms exist to organize mobile applications with distinctive
private policies (Jing, Ahn, Zhao & Hu, 2014). This paper aims
at highlighting mobile application security for native apps such
as navigation programs and social media, for instance, Waze
and Twitter respectively, and the methodologies that help
reduce these security threats.
Analysis Blocks to Identify Mobile Risks
There are several risks identified by where frequent faults
are found and how they can be surfaced during an application
security auditing. These risks are associated with different
factors such as attack vectors, aggressive agents, weaknesses,
technical impact, and business impact. To demonstrate, weak

3. server-side controls regards the threats from a third-party
mechanism like extremity servers necessary for most mobile
applications (Jing, Ahn, Zhao & Hu, 2014). This threat includes
defenseless server arrangement, authentication errors, session
supervision flaw, and access control weaknesses. Further,
insecure data storage regards the possible risks created by
weaknesses on the data storage in the mobile device which can
lead to information leakage. Inadequate transport layer
protection recognizes assailability such as non-encrypted
transport layer communications, the application of susceptible
cryptographic algorithms and recognition of illegal credentials
(Zhang, Xu, Meng & Zheng, 2018). Unintentional data leakage
risk recognizes the unidentified probable vulnerabilities in the
data management by the operating system.
Poor authorization and verification identify risks linked
with undesirable authentication suppositions such as that only
authentic users can send requests to the system without extra
confirmation of the user or weak verification protocols. Broken
cryptography entails the inaccurate usage of the
encryption/decryption course or the use of susceptible
cryptographic algorithms while client-side injection collects the
threat of not authenticating user input credentials as well as
evading code injection (Zhang, Xu, Meng & Zheng, 2018).
Another block is security decisions through suspicious inputs
that carry together the threat linked with compliant of any form
of input source which usually happens in the case of Inter-
Process Communication (IPC) mechanisms (Jing, Ahn, Zhao &
Hu, 2014). Again, improper handling of the session may
accumulate the flaws that may lead to faults in handling user
sessions, whereas, absence of binary protection is recognized as
a threat using suspicious source sites to organize the mobile
application code.
Methods of securing mobile applications
Some of the ways through which users can ensure
their applications and sensitive data are secure are by using
strategies such as writing secure code. For instance, bugs and

4. faults in code are the first steps used by most attackers to break
into an application by reversing or engineering it (Zhang, Xu,
Meng & Zheng, 2018). Also, users need to design their code in
an easy way to update and patch as well as testing repeatedly
and fixing bugs when exposed. Data encryption is another way
mobile application user need to adapt to avoid access to
sensitive information such as emails (Skovoroda & Gamayunov,
2015). The use of authorized APIs can also reduce risks
associated with mobile applications. For instance, APIs that are
not endorsed and freely coded can involuntarily give hackers
rights that can be distorted seriously. Again, the use of high-
level authentication can reduce access to sensitive data and
cases of security breaches (Zhang, Xu, Meng & Zheng, 2018).
For instance, setting applications to only accept strong
alphanumeric passwords is essential and this needs to be
reviewed periodically after 3-6 months. A common instance is
the use of multi-factor verification which entails a combination
of static passwords and the use of changing OTP. The use of
temper-detection technologies will alert the user when the code
is tampered with while deploying proper session handling by the
use of tokens rather than device identifiers to recognize sessions
(Zhang, Xu, Meng & Zheng, 2018). Also, the use of effective
cryptography techniques and tools for the management of
mobile applications is essential in securing native apps.
Conclusion
Overall, mobile applications are facing risks that may be
identified and avoided only if users opt to adopt effective ways
of dealing with the faults. Proper handling sessions, the use of
best cryptography methods, high-level verification, and the use
of authorized APIs may help secure those apps effectively.
Thus, users need to take precautions before installing, using or
accessing servers using their mobile phones and developers
need to ensure these apps cannot be compromised once sold in
the future.

5. References
Jing, Y., Ahn, G. J., Zhao, Z., & Hu, H. (2014). Towards
automated risk assessment and mitigation of mobile
applications. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure
Computing, 12(5), 571-584.
Skovoroda, A., & Gamayunov, D. (2015). Securing mobile
devices: malware mitigation methods. JoWUA, 6(2), 78-97.
Zhang, N., Xu, G., Meng, G., & Zheng, X. (2018, November).
So, Protector: Securing Native C/C++ Libraries for Mobile
Applications. In International Conference on Algorithms and
Architectures for Parallel Processing (pp. 417-431).
Springer, Cham.