{"id":4537,"date":"2022-11-29T09:08:46","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T14:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ionic.io\/blog\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2024-02-09T14:29:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T19:29:15","slug":"the-top-most-common-attack-vectors-for-mobile-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ionic.io\/blog\/the-top-most-common-attack-vectors-for-mobile-threats","title":{"rendered":"Top Attack Vectors for Mobile Threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Statista, consumers <\/span>downloaded 230 billion mobile apps<\/span><\/a> to their connected devices in 2021, up 63% from five years prior. Even more jarring, these numbers account for only first-time downloads and exclude re-installs and installed updates to these same applications. This type of hyper-growth was fueled, in part, by the global pandemic. As a result, developers had to push out new apps to meet these unique environmental demands, as well as new features and improvements to account for the change in the way day-to-day tasks were to be completed. With such fast-paced development, it left the door open for a reduction in quality leading to self-inflicted issues or room for a third party to gain unauthorized access to systems and information. Unfortunately, a number of <\/span>high notoriety apps<\/span><\/a> proved this to be true.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at how prevalent these types of breaches are, what the attack vectors were, and how you can better secure your apps moving forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How prevalent are mobile security threats?<\/h2>\n

One of the largest corporate team collaboration tools, Slack, fell victim to a data breach. A bug within their \u201cShared Invite Link\u201d was found to be transmitting a hashed version of the user\u2019s password. While Slack denied that clear-text versions of the password were made accessible, they forced those affected customers to reset their passwords and wipe app data logs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Users of a mobile banking and payment app by Klarna found themselves confused as they were briefly exposed to different users\u2019 account information. Given the nature of potentially sensitive information being shared, the company had to lock down the service until the issue was rectified.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Apple and Google found themselves in hot water as well with flaws found in iMessage and 13 popular Android apps, respectively. The iMessage flaw exposed all of its 900 million active users to spyware granting access to the device owner\u2019s photos, messages, personal data, and location. The Android apps\u2019 issues exposed personal data including, emails, chat messages, passwords, and photos of as many as 100 million users.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even a private <\/span>Canadian COVID vaccination passport app<\/span><\/a>, Portpass, found itself in harm’s way when ineffective data storage led to personal unencrypted data being made accessible in plaintext. Hackers were able to gain access to the data of 650,000 users.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the number of devices and app downloads skyrockets year-over-year, the attack surface expands along with it. Mobile application security threats have never been more prevalent.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the common attack vectors?<\/h2>\n

The data breaches outlined in the previous section highlight how important it is for developers to remain vigilant in their coding practices. Organizations such as The OWASP Foundation work to improve the security of software and bring to light common vulnerabilities, including <\/span>those found in mobile applications<\/span><\/a>. Alongside the list of popular risks are the associated attack vectors, security weaknesses, technical and business impacts, as well as information on whether you may have such a vulnerability and how you may go about protecting against it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The breaches outlined above fell perfectly into some of the OWASP Top 10 mobile risks buckets:<\/span><\/p>\n