Automated static analysis of mobile applications

The first step during a black box penetration test is to gather as much information as possible about the target. In the case of a mobile application penetration test (black box), a static analysis of the application package (Android Application Package (APK) or iOS application archive (IPA)) is done to get a basic idea about the application, as well as to analyze it for some low-hanging vulnerabilities and missing security controls. Let's have a look at things that a static analysis tool can check on an application:

• Extract details about the application from the application's manifest (for Android) or PLIST (for iOS) files.
• Analyze the binary for protections such as Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), code signing, and Position Independent Executable (PIE).

  Important Note

  ARC is used for automatic memory management in iOS apps. This is done by handling the reference count of objects at the time of compilation...