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Cybersecurity & Compliance

Mobile Application Security Testing

Security review of iOS and Android apps — local data storage, the APIs they call, and platform-specific risks — so sensitive data on the device and in transit is properly protected.

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Overview

Risk that lives on a device you don't control

Mobile apps hold and transmit sensitive data on devices you do not control, which introduces risks a web app does not face. We assess iOS and Android applications against recognised guidance such as the OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS). Testing looks at how the app stores data locally (keychains, databases, caches, logs), how it protects data in transit, how it handles authentication and session tokens, and how the backend APIs it depends on are secured. We also review platform-specific concerns — insecure inter-process communication, weak certificate handling, and exposure of secrets embedded in the app binary. Findings come with clear evidence and remediation steps for your mobile and backend teams, and cover both the client app and the server side it relies on, because mobile security is only as strong as the weaker of the two.

What’s included

  • iOS and Android coverage
  • Aligned to OWASP MASVS guidance
  • Local data storage and data-in-transit review
  • Backend API and authentication testing
  • Platform-specific risk checks (IPC, cert handling, embedded secrets)
Who it's for

Who ships mobile apps worth assessing

  • Fintech, healthtech and consumer app teams shipping iOS or Android builds that store or transmit regulated personal and payment data.
  • Startups being asked for a mobile penetration test report by an enterprise customer, investor or app-store security review before go-live.
  • Product teams whose mobile app is the primary revenue channel and who have never had the client binary independently assessed.
  • Enterprises with a portfolio of internal or field-force mobile apps needing consistent Android and iOS security testing coverage.
When you need it

Moments to bring in a mobile review

  • A major release adds payments, biometric login or document upload, and the team wants the new data paths tested before it reaches the stores.
  • An enterprise prospect's security questionnaire asks for a recent mobile application penetration testing report covering both platforms.
  • The app was built by an external agency and nobody has verified how tokens, keys and cached data are stored on the device.
  • A researcher or bug-bounty report showed secrets extracted from the app binary, and you need to know what else is exposed.
  • You are migrating to a cross-platform framework and want a security baseline of the new build against the old native one.
Deliverables

What comes back to your teams

Every engagement ends with something your team can act on — not a slide deck.

  • A technical report of findings with severity ratings, reproduction steps and supporting evidence.
  • Coverage mapping showing which OWASP MASVS control groups were tested on each platform.
  • Remediation guidance split for your mobile client team and your backend API team.
  • An executive summary suitable for sharing with customers, auditors or your board.
  • A retest of remediated findings and an updated report reflecting their fixed status.
How it works

How we work through your build

The same predictable shape whether the work is an assessment or a build, so you always know what happens next.

  1. 1

    Discover

    We start by understanding your systems, goals, and constraints — scope, risk tolerance, and what success looks like — so the work is aimed at your actual problem, not a generic template.

  2. 2

    Assess or build

    For security work, we test and analyse against recognised standards. For development, we build in small, reviewable increments. Either way, you see progress early and can change direction.

  3. 3

    Report or ship

    You get clear, prioritised deliverables — a report your engineers can act on, or working software shipped to your environment — with the context to understand what was done and why.

  4. 4

    Support

    We stay available after delivery: retesting fixes, iterating on the product, and answering the questions that come up once real users and real traffic arrive.

FAQ

Mobile Security — common questions

Do you test both iOS and Android, or do we choose one?

We test whichever platforms you ship, and we recommend both when both are in production. iOS and Android differ in how they handle keychain and keystore storage, inter-process communication, backup behaviour and certificate validation, so a finding on one platform frequently does not exist on the other. If budget forces a choice, we usually start with the platform carrying most of your users and sensitive transactions.

What do you need from us to start a mobile app penetration test?

We need installable builds for each platform, test accounts covering every user role, and a short walkthrough of the app's main flows. Non-production builds without certificate pinning bypass protections speed testing considerably, though we can work with store builds. Access to API documentation and a staging backend helps us test the server side properly, since mobile security depends on both the client and the API it calls.

Is this different from testing the APIs the app calls?

It overlaps but is not the same, and we cover both. Mobile application security testing examines the client itself: local data storage, secrets in the binary, transport protection, platform misconfiguration and runtime tampering resistance. API security testing examines authorisation logic, object-level access control and business-logic abuse on the server. We test the APIs your app depends on as part of this engagement, because a hardened client in front of a permissive API protects nothing.

Which standard do you test against?

We work to the OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard for the requirements and the OWASP Mobile Application Security Testing Guide for technique, supplemented by platform vendor guidance from Apple and Google. That gives you a defensible, published frame of reference rather than an undocumented internal checklist, and it makes our coverage easy for your customers or auditors to interpret.
Related services

Round out the assessment with these

Teams that come to Safe Tech AI for mobile security frequently need these too.

  • API Security Testing

    Testing REST, GraphQL, and internal APIs for authentication, authorization, injection, and abuse risks — the layer that powers your apps and integrations but is easy to expose by accident.

    Learn more

  • Web Application Security Testing

    Deep testing of your web applications against OWASP-class risks — injection, broken access control, authentication flaws, and more — with findings mapped to how your app actually works, not a generic checklist.

    Learn more

  • Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing (VAPT)

    Simulated attacks that find exploitable weaknesses before real attackers do. We combine broad automated scanning with hands-on manual testing, then hand you a prioritised, reproducible report your engineers can act on.

    Learn more

Secrets in the binary don't stay secret.

Have your iOS or Android build assessed against OWASP MASVS for local storage, transport, and backend API risk, with a report your mobile and backend teams can both use.

Start a mobile app security review