Due to the exponential growth of the use of mobile applications, consumers are finding it very convenient to carry out multiple activities through mobile applications. Hence, from the perspective of organizations, it is very much important for them to be clear about the basics of OWASP mobile top 10 list because this list is updated regularly to reflect the changing landscape of mobile security threats. Some of the common insights that you need to know about the list in 2024 have been explained as follows:
- Insufficient input or output validation (new category):This particular category very well emphasizes the importance of validating the input and output in mobile applications and proper validation is very important to deal with multiple issues. Implementation of the comprehensive validation on the client and the server side is important to ensure that everything has been carried out as per the expected behavior.
- Inadequate privacy control (new category): This will be highly successful in reflecting the global growing concern for user privacy because the category will be addressing the risk associated with insufficient privacy measures in mobile applications. This will focus on the potentially viable information that provides people with a consent mechanism for data collection, and handling the user data, and also deals with privacy breaches along with legal issues. Developing a clear policy that will inform the users about the data collection in this case is important so that implementation of the explicit consent form will be accordingly done.
- Security misconfiguration (new category): This category will deal with the issues resulting from incorrect or incomplete security configuration and will also include issues like deployment of the application applications with the default settings, issues in the configuration of the permission, and mistakes in the security settings which will be leading the other authorized access and data breaches. Regularly auditing and reviewing the configurations of the application is important in this case so that deployment for the security setting will be sorted out without any problem.
- Improper credential usage (previously known as improper platform usage): This updated category very well highlights the risk associated with a misuse of the credentials in mobile applications along with dealing with sensitive information based upon the management of the user credentials. Securely dealing with the storage of the credentials is important in this case so that the android key store and other associated things will be accordingly sorted out with proper elements of encryption and protection of credentials.
- Inadequate supply in security (previously known as insecure data storage):This will be based upon reflecting the growing importance of this supply chain integrity because the category will be focusing on the risk of the supply chain of the mobile applications including the vulnerabilities in the third-party component and dependencies. Connecting the comprehensive security analysis of the third-party components is important in this case so that integration of the things will be adequately done into the application. Regular update of the components is important to deal with the incorporation of the security patches so that the software composition analysis tool will be understood very easily
- Insecure authentication (previously known as insecure communication): This category will emphasize the importance of robust authentication and authorization mechanisms in mobile applications so that unauthorized excess and data breaches will be sorted up. Mobile banking applications do not require this particular system for sensitive transactions because once the user logs in the attacker will have temporary access to the device which is the most common example of this particular issue. So, as a solution, implementing a strong authentication mechanism is important to improve the security of the user accounts and ensure that things are perfectly carried out.
- Insecure communication (previously known as insecure authentication): This has been renamed with the motive of specifically addressing the risk associated with insecure data transmission for example interception of this sensitive data due to unencrypted channels or inadequate encryption methods. Using the transport layer security for the data in transit in this particular case is important for people so that certificate pinning will be sorted out and everybody will be able to ensure that communication and point will be perfectly top-notch at all times
- Insufficient binary protection (consolidated category): This category will combine the risk associated with tampering and reverse engineering and will also focus on protecting the binary code of the applications from any kind of issues. Using the best of the techniques in this particular case to make reverse engineering difficult is important so that implementation of the best of the mechanisms will be perfectly done.
- Insecure data storage: This will include the risk associated with the extraneous functionality from the 2016 list and this will further emphasize the requirement of storage-related practices along with strong encryption to protect the sensitive data on the mobile device. Encrypting the sensitive data and storage locally is important in this case so that management of the keys will be perfectly done and practises will be very well incorporated in the right system.
- Insufficient cryptography: This will combine the case associated with the broken cryptography from the 2016 list and category, highlighting the importance of strong and properly implemented practices to ensure confidentiality with integrity.
- Client code quality (removed category): This category has been removed from the 2016 list and now has been merged with insufficient input and output validation in the 2024 edition of the list
Hence, the organization needs to realize that OWASP mobile top 10 list will be updating its release regularly with every revolving landscape of security threats due to which every organization should focus on taking a proactive stance on improving security. Hence, getting in touch with the experts at Appsealing is also very important for the companies so that they can enjoy protection in the modern business world very easily and further will be able to enjoy the best level of assistance in effectively dealing with pressing security risks.