Mobile Application Penetration Testing
Once your app ships, it lives on a device you don't control — in the hands of every user, and every attacker. We test it the way they would: pulling it apart on the device, watching it on the wire, and probing the backend it trusts.
Veteran researchers. CERT-In empaneled. Static, dynamic and runtime analysis — not a store review.
Your code is now on the attacker's device
A mobile app is unlike any other asset you protect: you build it, but it runs somewhere you can't see, on a phone that may be rooted, jailbroken, intercepted or instrumented by the person holding it.
Everything you compile into the binary — keys, logic, endpoints, secrets — travels with it. A determined attacker can decompile it, watch its traffic, hook its functions while it runs, and replay its requests against your backend at leisure. Passing an app store review proves none of this is safe.
That is why mobile security testing has to happen on three fronts at once: what the app stores and does on the device, how it protects data as it moves across the network, and how its backend APIs hold up when the client is no longer trusted. Our assessments combine static, dynamic and runtime analysis with manual exploitation by experienced researchers — going well beyond the OWASP Mobile Top 10 to find the deep technical flaws that automated tooling and a clean Play Store listing will never reveal.
"On mobile, the attacker owns the device. We assume they do — and test for everything they can reach from there."
What an attacker is really after
Every finding we report ladders up to a real adversarial goal. These are the outcomes attackers pursue against a mobile app — and the lens we test through, aligned to the OWASP Mobile Top 10.
Extracting secrets from the binary
Recovering hardcoded keys, tokens, endpoints and credentials baked into the app.
Reading data left on the device
Harvesting sensitive data the app stores unencrypted in databases, preferences, caches or logs.
Intercepting traffic
Defeating weak or missing certificate pinning to read, replay or tamper with data in transit.
Bypassing authentication & authorization
Reaching protected functionality or another user's data by abusing weak client-side auth and broken access control.
Tampering with the running app
Hooking functions at runtime to disable controls, skip checks or change behaviour.
Defeating defences
Stripping out root/jailbreak detection, anti-debugging and integrity checks to operate freely.
Abusing the backend through the client
Treating the app as a map to your APIs and attacking the server-side logic behind it.
Three layers, one engagement
A mobile app is never just the app. We assess all three planes where it can be attacked — because a finding in any one of them is enough.
On the device
What the app stores and does locally
We examine how the app handles data at rest — local databases, key-value stores, caches, logs and the keychain/keystore — and how it protects itself against reverse engineering, tampering and a rooted or jailbroken environment.
Over the wire
How data moves to your servers
We inspect the app's network behaviour: TLS configuration, certificate and public-key pinning, and whether traffic can be intercepted, downgraded, replayed or modified between the device and your backend.
At the backend
The APIs the app talks to
The app is a blueprint of your server-side attack surface. We test the APIs behind it for authentication, authorization, input validation and business-logic flaws — because once an attacker has the client, the backend is the prize.
A disciplined, attacker-led methodology
We follow a structured methodology aligned with the OWASP Mobile Application Security Testing Guide (MASTG) and the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES), so coverage is repeatable and defensible while the exploitation itself stays creative and adversarial. Vulnerability analysis runs in parallel across static, dynamic, reverse-engineering and storage techniques before findings are exploited, escalated and reported.
Tools find the obvious. People find the dangerous.
Both have a role. We use them for what each does best — and we never let a scan, or a store review, stand in for an assessment.
Breadth, at speed
Automated analysis quickly decompiles the package, flags known weaknesses, surfaces exposed components and inventories the app's libraries and configuration. We treat its output as a starting point — every result is triaged by an analyst and false positives are eliminated before anything reaches your report.
Depth, with judgment
The findings that matter most — broken authentication and access control, insecure storage, weak pinning, runtime tampering, and the business logic unique to your product — require a human who understands intent. Our researchers reverse-engineer, instrument the running app, defeat client-side defences and exploit the backend, surfacing the issues no automated tool is built to reason about.
Choose the depth of visibility
We tailor the engagement to how much we know going in. More context means deeper coverage in the same time.
We test the app from the outside with no internal knowledge or credentials — exactly as an attacker who downloads it from the store would. Best for validating your real public exposure.
We test with partial knowledge: valid accounts across user roles, an app walk-through, data-flow context and API documentation. This is the most common and cost-effective model, letting us reach authenticated, role-specific and backend flaws far more efficiently.
We test with full visibility — including architecture and, where in scope, source code — for the most thorough coverage of complex, high-value or heavily protected apps.
What we test against
Our coverage is benchmarked against the OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS) and exercised with the test cases in the OWASP Mobile Application Security Testing Guide (MASTG). Across an engagement we systematically probe the following control areas:
01 Data Storage & Privacy How sensitive data and PII are stored on the device — databases, shared preferences, caches, logs, screenshots and the keychain/keystore — and whether anything leaks where it shouldn't.
02 Cryptography Use of strong, current algorithms, correct key generation and storage, and protection against weak, custom or misused crypto.
03 Authentication & Authorization Login, session and token handling, biometric and step-up flows, and whether authorization is correctly enforced on the server rather than trusted to the client.
04 Network Communication TLS configuration, certificate and public-key pinning, and resistance to interception, downgrade, replay and tampering.
05 Platform Interaction Exposed components, inter-process communication, deep links and URL schemes, WebViews, clipboard and permission handling.
06 Code Quality & Input Handling Server-side and client-side input/output validation, injection, and safe handling of untrusted data and third-party libraries.
07 Resilience & Anti-Tampering Root/jailbreak detection, anti-debugging, integrity and obfuscation defences — and how readily a determined attacker defeats them.
08 Backend & API Security Authentication, access control, business logic and input validation across the APIs the app depends on.
Every kind of app you ship
The same attacker mindset applies whether your app is fully native, web-wrapped, or somewhere in between.
Native applications
Built for a specific platform with full access to device capabilities and the best performance — and the largest local attack surface to test (Android Kotlin/Java, iOS Swift/Objective-C).
Hybrid applications
A native shell wrapping web content built with HTML, CSS and JavaScript — where WebView handling, the JavaScript bridge and bundled assets all need scrutiny.
Mobile web apps / PWAs
Browser-delivered experiences that behave like installed apps — assessed across both their web and mobile-specific exposure.
How an engagement works
A clear path from kickoff to remediation — designed to give your team findings they can act on immediately.
What you receive
Every engagement ends in a report your team can act on — written for both the engineers who will fix the issues and the leaders who must understand the risk.
Executive summary
Risk posture and business impact in plain language for leadership.
Detailed findings
Each issue with severity, affected component, reproducible proof-of-concept and clear evidence — across device, network and backend.
Remediation guidance
Specific, prioritized, platform-aware fixes for Android and iOS — not generic advice.
Standards mapping
Findings mapped to OWASP MASVS control groups and the OWASP Mobile Top 10.
Remediation retest
We re-verify fixes so you can confirm the risk is genuinely closed.
Direct researcher access
A debrief with the people who did the testing, not a handoff to a call centre.
Supports ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI-DSS and RBI/SEBI assessment requirements
Beyond the app
A mobile app rarely stands alone. The same researchers assess what it connects to.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from an app store review or a scan?
A store review checks policy and basic hygiene; a scanner produces a list of potential issues from known signatures. A penetration test confirms what is actually exploitable — it reverse-engineers the binary, instruments the app at runtime, intercepts its traffic and attacks the backend, finding the storage, crypto, authorization and business-logic flaws neither a review nor a scanner can reason about.
Do you need a rooted or jailbroken device?
For the deepest dynamic and runtime analysis we use rooted/jailbroken devices or emulators in a controlled environment. Where that isn't possible, we use repackaging and instrumentation techniques to achieve the same coverage on standard devices. Either way, your production users are never affected.
Do you need our source code?
No. We routinely test from the compiled APK/IPA in a black- or grey-box engagement. Providing source (white-box) or API documentation deepens coverage and lets us reach more in the same time — but it is never a prerequisite.
We already have certificate pinning and root detection. Isn't that enough?
Those are valuable defences, and we test exactly how well they hold. Pinning and detection routines can often be bypassed by a determined attacker; we assess whether yours genuinely raise the bar or merely appear to — and what an attacker reaches once they're past.
How often should we test?
At minimum annually, and after any significant change to the app, its authentication, its payment or data-handling logic, or its backend — as well as when compliance requires it. Frequently shipping apps benefit from a recurring cadence.
Do you retest after we fix the issues?
Yes. Remediation retesting is included so you can confirm each finding is genuinely resolved.
Find it before they do.
Tell us about your app — Android, iOS or both — and we'll scope an assessment that fits, or connect you directly with a researcher.