What is mobile application security? (and MASVS)
Mobile application security addresses the risks unique to apps that ship as compiled binaries and run on devices outside your control: insecure local storage, weak cryptography, cleartext traffic, platform-permission misuse, and secrets embedded in the package. The OWASP MASVS is the standard that defines what a secure mobile app requires, and analysis works on the shipped APK or IPA - because that is what an attacker actually has.
Mobile application security addresses a class of risk the web world mostly does not face: your software runs on a device you do not own, in the hands of someone who might be the attacker. A mobile app ships as a compiled binary - an Android APK or an iOS IPA - onto hardware where a determined adversary can inspect it, read its files, intercept its network traffic, and run it under instrumentation. That inverted trust model is what makes mobile security its own discipline.
Why the device changes everything
Server-side code runs in an environment you control; mobile code does not. The consequences ripple through every design decision:
- Local storage is exposed. Anything the app saves on the device - tokens, cached data, keys - is reachable by someone who controls the device. “Store it locally” is not “store it safely.”
- The binary is inspectable. The shipped package can be decompiled and read. Secrets embedded in it - API keys, credentials, endpoints - are not hidden, merely obscured.
- Traffic can be intercepted. On a device an attacker controls, the app’s network communication is visible unless it is properly protected, which is why cleartext traffic and weak certificate handling are recurring findings.
- The platform is a shared surface. Permissions, inter-app communication, deep links, and the keystore are powerful and easy to misuse, and mistakes there expose the app to other apps on the device.
MASVS: the standard
The reference point for mobile security is the OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS): a structured set of requirements defining what a secure mobile app must do, organized across areas including storage, cryptography, network communication, platform interaction, authentication, and resilience. Alongside its companion testing guide, it gives teams and auditors a concrete definition of “secure enough,” and it increasingly appears in enterprise requirements and store-submission scrutiny. The related Mobile Top 10 frames the highest-impact risks; MASVS is the detailed verification standard beneath it.
Analysis works on the artifact
The defining practicality of mobile analysis: it targets the shipped binary, because that is what an attacker has. Static analysis of a mobile app inspects the manifest, the bytecode, native libraries, and packaged resources of the actual APK or IPA - no source code required, though source enriches it. This has a security benefit of its own: you never have to upload an unreleased build to a third party to analyze it, since the analysis runs on the artifact you already hold. Uploading a pre-release build to a cloud service is itself a risk, which is one more reason mobile analysis belongs inside your own network.
In the SecuNexa platform
SecuMobile analyzes Android and iOS binaries offline, mapping findings to MASVS and the Mobile Top 10, and covering the risks unique to the device model - insecure storage, weak cryptography, cleartext traffic, platform misuse, embedded secrets. Results flow to the dashboard alongside the rest of the application’s findings, so mobile is part of one risk picture rather than a separate silo.
Frequently asked questions
Why is mobile security different from web security?
Because the trust model inverts. A web app runs on servers you control; a mobile app runs on the user's device, which an attacker may fully control - they can inspect the binary, read its storage, intercept its traffic, and run it under instrumentation. So anything the app stores, embeds, or assumes about its environment is exposed in a way server code is not.
What is MASVS?
The OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard - a structured set of requirements defining what a secure mobile app must do, across areas like storage, cryptography, network communication, platform interaction, and code quality. It is the reference auditors and store-submission reviews increasingly use, and it pairs with a testing guide describing how to verify each requirement.
Can mobile apps be analyzed without the source code?
Yes, and often they must be. Analysis works on the compiled artifact - the APK or IPA you would submit to a store - because that is precisely what an attacker obtains. Manifests, bytecode, native libraries, and embedded resources are all inspectable in the shipped package, so source access enriches analysis but is not required.