Using Mobile Applications for attacking Web Applications

This simple blog post was motivated by my desire to look at some mobile applications that I happen to use. I did not choose a specific methodology for testing mobile applications. What I did was to use some of my knowledge in testing web applications in general.

To my pleasant surprise I got results that made​​me happy, or not.

01 - Catalog Application.

Starting my tests, on the first application I noticed the web server authentication credentials are simply sent in plain text using a POST method.

Most of these mobile applications are just simple frontends for web services.

This behavior has been confirmed in all tested applications.

Some examples.

02 – Auction Application

Let's start intercepting the requests of the mobile application and doing a simple SQL Injection test:

In this specific case it was possible to notice that the application consumed by Mobile Application is vulnerable to SQL Injection attacks.

So, one would ask, should I be attacking a Web Application or the Mobile Application?

The answer for this question is easy, go for the Web Application.

Extracting information's via SQL Injection:

After that, I'm hungry… and I love sandwich!!

03 – Fast-food Delivery Application

Ohhh no… another application that my credential in being sent in plain text.

Conclusion

Because it is a Mobile Application developers might before getting the basics of security.

If your Mobile Application is a simple frontend the same concepts of web security must be considered. Think about it and check some of the following references for security best practices:

OWASPDevelopment Guide.

OWASP Transport Layer Protection.

OWASP SSL Best Practices.