Application shielding - Security Software Glossary | Promon

What is app shielding?

Application shielding refers to a set of technologies that modify an application’s source, byte, or binary code, making it more resistant to intrusion, tampering, reverse engineering, and malware attacks. Unlike security solutions that monitor and test vulnerabilities, application shielding can detect and prevent real-time attacks against mobile applications.

Summary

Mobile application shielding is designed to protect mobile apps from a variety of cyber threats by embedding security measures directly into the application's code. This approach safeguards sensitive data and ensures the integrity of the app against attacks such as reverse engineering, tampering, and malware.

Deep dive

Static vs dynamic protection

• Static protection involves techniques that modify the app’s code before deployment. This includes code obfuscation and white-box cryptography.
• Dynamic protection refers to defenses that are active during runtime, like Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP), for immediate response to attacks without needing updates.

Multi-layer protection

A key feature of application shielding is its layered approach. These techniques provide a multi-layered defense that enhances the security of mobile applications beyond traditional perimeter-based security measures:

• Anti-tampering: Detects and prevents modifications to the app’s code, maintaining the integrity of the application against unauthorized changes and hacks.
• Code obfuscation: Makes reverse engineering cumbersome and time-consuming by renaming variables, encrypting strings, inserting dummy code, and changing control flow without changing its functionality.
• Encryption: Ensures that data stored within or transmitted from the app is secure and unreadable without proper decryption keys, protecting sensitive information from intercepts and leaks.
• RASP: Actively monitors the app to detect and mitigate attacks as they happen. This is crucial for defending against zero-day exploits and unknown threats.
• White-box cryptography: Protects cryptographic keys by ensuring they are never revealed in memory, thus securing data even if the application is compromised.

Risks that application shielding protects against

• Reverse engineering: By making the code complex and difficult to understand, it protects intellectual property and sensitive data within the app.
• App tampering: Ensures the app’s original functionality and security measures remain intact and operational, preventing malicious modifications.
• Malware and direct attacks: With embedded security, even if malware enters the device, the shielding can prevent it from affecting the app.

Compliance and regulatory benefits

App shielding helps in complying with stringent regulatory requirements such as GDPR, PSD2, and EMVCo, which mandate strict data protection standards. With increasing regulatory demands on data protection and privacy, application shielding helps organizations comply with:

• PSD2 and EMVCo: Ensures secure mobile payments and financial transactions, protecting against fraud.
• GDPR: Helps in safeguarding personal data, a must for apps operating within or targeting users in the European Union.

How to integrate shielding for apps

A common concern when implementing new security features is the complexity of integration. Integrating application shielding into mobile apps seems to be an exception. You can incorporate application shielding automatically, with no need for programming, and with a near-zero impact on development resources.

With Promon, you can upload and secure Android or iOS apps in minutes by using our integration tool, or an SDK that is integrated into the app. Once secured, the app is immediately ready for distribution via public or enterprise app stores.

Examples

1. Extraction of encryption keys: Payment apps, such as mobile wallets, use white-box cryptography to secure the encryption keys used in financial transactions. This technique makes it extremely difficult for attackers to extract the keys directly from the app, even if they have full access to the app's binaries, thereby preventing fraudulent transactions.
2. Unauthorized content access and piracy: Streaming services like Netflix implement anti-tampering measures to protect their content. These measures detect and prevent modifications to the app that would allow users to bypass DRM (Digital Rights Management) controls, thus stopping unauthorized access and distribution of copyrighted content.
3. Reverse engineering to access sensitive health data: Health and wellness apps that store personal health information use code obfuscation to make the reverse engineering process time-consuming and complex. This makes the patients' sensitive health data harder to understand and prevents it from being exposed and misused, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR.

History

Application shielding began to take shape in the early 2000s with the rise of mobile computing. The first implementations focused on modifying the app’s source, byte, or binary code to resist tampering and unauthorized access. These methods included code obfuscation, encryption, and integrity checks.

This technology is continually advancing, driven by the rise of sophisticated hacking methods and the growing dependence on mobile apps for vital operations in sectors like finance and healthcare. The evolution of application shielding is marked by an ongoing battle between security experts striving to protect digital assets and attackers seeking to exploit vulnerabilities. As mobile apps become increasingly essential to daily life and business, the demand for more advanced and effective application shielding rises.

With mobile apps becoming critical in areas like finance and healthcare, application shielding has evolved to meet the challenge of increasingly complex cyber threats. Key advancements include RASP, white-box cryptography, and advanced obfuscation.

Future

The future of mobile application shielding is likely to be shaped by several key trends and technological advancements. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will be increasingly used to enhance application shielding technologies by predicting and automatically responding to new attacks. Technologies like RASP will become more advanced, providing active monitoring and response capabilities to protect applications during execution with runtime capabilities.

To further secure mobile applications, especially in sectors like banking and finance, application shielding might incorporate behavioral biometrics. This involves analyzing user behavior patterns such as typing speed, scroll patterns, and device interaction to detect and respond to anomalies that may indicate unauthorized access. Broader trends, including the rise of zero trust architecture and expanding regulatory compliance, will drive growth and adoption of app shielding technologies.

Sources

1. https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-application-shielding/
2. https://www.techtarget.com/searchsoftwarequality/definition/application-security
3. https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/tip/Preventing-attacks-on-mobile-applications-in-the-enterprise