How do you automate mobile security with tools and frameworks?

1 Why automate mobile security?

Manual security testing can be time-consuming, error-prone, and inconsistent. You may miss some vulnerabilities, overlook some scenarios, or fail to comply with some standards. Automating mobile security can help you save time, improve accuracy, and ensure consistency. You can also integrate security testing into your continuous delivery pipeline, so that you can detect and fix issues early and often.

2 What are the challenges of automating mobile security?

Automating mobile security is not without its challenges. You need to consider the diversity of mobile platforms, devices, and networks. You need to handle the dynamic nature of mobile apps, which may change frequently and use different features and permissions. You need to cope with the complexity of mobile security threats, which may involve different types of attacks and actors. You need to choose the right tools and frameworks that suit your needs and budget.

3 How to automate mobile security testing?

One of the key steps to automate mobile security is to perform security testing on your mobile apps. Security testing can be divided into static analysis and dynamic analysis. Static analysis involves scanning the source code or binary of your app for potential vulnerabilities, such as insecure coding practices, hard-coded credentials, or weak encryption. Dynamic analysis involves running your app on a device or emulator and observing its behavior and interactions with the network, the system, and other apps. You can use various tools and frameworks to automate both types of analysis, such as:

- OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) : an open-source tool that can perform dynamic analysis of your app's network traffic and identify common web vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, or broken authentication.

- Mobile Security Framework (MobSF) : an open-source tool that can perform both static and dynamic analysis of your app's code and behavior and provide detailed reports and recommendations.

- Appium : an open-source framework that can automate the functional testing of your app on real devices or emulators and simulate user actions and inputs.

4 How to automate mobile security monitoring?

Another important step to automate mobile security is to monitor your app's performance and security in the production environment. You need to collect and analyze data from your app's usage, crashes, errors, feedback, and incidents. You need to detect and respond to any security breaches, incidents, or anomalies. You need to update and patch your app regularly and communicate with your users and stakeholders. You can use various tools and frameworks to automate mobile security monitoring, such as:

- Firebase Crashlytics : a tool that can automatically capture and report your app's crashes and errors and provide insights into the root causes and solutions.

- AppDynamics : a tool that can monitor your app's performance and user experience and provide real-time visibility into your app's health and security.

- Sentry : a tool that can track and alert you of any security issues or incidents affecting your app and provide context and details to help you resolve them.

5 How to improve your mobile security automation?

Automating mobile security is not a one-time task; it requires continuous improvement and following best practices. Adopting a security-by-design approach and following the OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS) are essential for ensuring mobile app security. Additionally, using a combination of tools and frameworks that cover different aspects of mobile security and regularly reviewing and updating them is essential for staying up to date with the latest trends and threats in mobile security. Automating mobile security with tools and frameworks can help save time, improve accuracy, and ensure consistency in testing and monitoring. It can also integrate security into your continuous delivery pipeline, allowing you to detect and fix issues early on. By following the best practices discussed in this article, you can enhance your mobile security automation skills and processes.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?