VAPTAi: A Threat Model for Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing of Android and iOS Mobile Banking Apps

Abstract

Mobile devices are becoming targets for hackers and malicious users due to the multifold increase in its capabilities and usage. Security threats are more prominent in mobile payment and mobile banking applications (MBAs). As these MBAs, store, transmit and access sensitive and confidential information, so utmost priority should be given to secure MBAs. In this paper, we have analyzed MBAs of several banks running on two dominant platforms of Android & iOS using both static and dynamic analysis. We have proposed threat model, to detect various vulnerabilities rigorously. We have done a systematic investigation of different unknown vulnerabilities particularly in mobile banking applications and showed how MBAs are vulnerable to MitM attacks. We observe that some MBAs are using simple HTTP protocol to transfer user data without concerning about security requirements. In Most of the cases, MBAs are receiving the fake or self-signed certificates. These are blindly maintaining all certificates as sound and valid, which leads to SSL/TLS Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks. We present a detailed analysis of the security of MBAs which will be useful for application developers, security testers, researchers, bankers and bank customers.