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 mademe 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: