Reference
Mobile application security glossary
The vocabulary of mobile security testing, defined plainly. Each entry opens with a single-sentence definition and expands into why it matters when assessing a real application.
Emulator detection
Emulator detection is the set of runtime checks an application performs to determine whether it is running on virtualised hardware rather than a physical handset.
Root detection
Root detection is the set of checks an application uses to decide whether the Android device it is running on has been privilege-escalated.
Device fingerprinting
Device fingerprinting is the practice of combining hardware and software attributes into an identifier that distinguishes one device from another without an explicit account or cookie.
Certificate pinning
Certificate pinning is a control in which an application accepts only a specific certificate or public key for a server, rather than any certificate signed by a trusted authority.
Man-in-the-middle interception
Man-in-the-middle interception is the positioning of a proxy between an application and its servers so that traffic, including TLS-protected traffic, can be read and modified in transit.
Transport Layer Security (TLS)
Transport Layer Security is the protocol that encrypts and authenticates traffic between a mobile application and the services it talks to.
OWASP MASVS
The OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard is a framework that defines what a mobile application must satisfy to be considered secure, organised into control groups covering storage, cryptography, authentication, network, platform interaction, code quality and resilience.
OWASP MASTG
The OWASP Mobile Application Security Testing Guide is the companion manual to MASVS, describing concrete procedures for verifying each requirement on Android and iOS.
False negative (security testing)
A false negative in security testing is a result that reports no issue when an issue is in fact present.
Accessibility tree
The accessibility tree is the structured representation of on-screen user interface elements that Android exposes to assistive technologies.