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<p>As blockchain is revolutionizing industries, hacks and other security breaches threaten to derail it before it can really take off. To put it more specifically, blockchain itself is secure in most cases, but the apps that run it are not. Blockchain interacts with the apps via smart contracts, but it is still vulnerable to specific kinds of bugs just like any other software. However, it is important to note that blockchain apps very often have direct control of financial assets. This puts a greater emphasis on securing the smart contract to avoid a hack like the infamous attack on the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) in 2016. Hackers exploited a vulnerability in the smart contract to <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/attack-on-ethereum-currency-highlights-crypto-weakness/?verso=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow"><b> steal $50 million worth of Ethereum</b></a><b>.  </b></p>



<p>In order to make sure that the blockchain apps are safe to use, it is necessary to conduct an audit of the smart contract to identify any possible vulnerabilities.</p>



<h2>Performing the Smart Contract Audit</h2>



<p>Auditing the smart contract entails a thorough analysis of the contract itself to identify possible mistakes in the code, design flaws, and other security issues. Let’s take a look at some of the steps involved in the audit.</p>



<h3>1. Specification</h3>



<p>The audit team will study all of the specifications and other related documents to obtain information about the architecture, design and how the app was built. If the audit team does not have access to this information, they will not know what the code is meant to do or whether or not it works properly. Therefore, the first thing that you should do before undertaking such an audit of the security contract is to make sure that all project specifications are accounted for since they will serve as the foundation for the audit itself.</p>



<p>Make sure that everybody is in agreement when the code freeze will happen. This is when the code has been finished and the developers have looked over everything to make that there are no bugs. A final commit hash will be included in the specs to make sure that everybody is on the same page as to the code that is subject to the audit and any further changes are not within the scope of the audit.</p>



<h3>2. Testing</h3>



<p>Testing is the best and easiest way to identify bugs. These tests can range from unit testing, which is targeted at certain functions, as well as integration testing, which is broader in terms of scope and volume of code. By performing all of these tests, you eliminate the easily noticeable bugs, thus making the audit more effective. Also, the tests will make sure that everybody is in complete agreement in terms of how the project is supposed to perform and what functionalities should be, thus preventing confusion during the audit itself. There will usually be a whole suite of tests performed by the auditing team. If they see a large amount of failed tests, they will suggest a temporary pause in the audit if significant changes need to be made to the code-base.</p>



<p>Be sure to check the line coverage, which will tell you how much code has been covered by the tests. The more code that has been covered, the more features have been tested, which translated to fewer unforeseen issues and vulnerabilities. Generally, line coverage should be about 85-90%. If this number falls below 75% the project team should be notified as soon as possible so more testing can be conducted before deployment.</p>



<h3>3. Automated Testing</h3>



<p>Software that controls financial assets requires the safest code possible, which means that automated tools will have to be used. Such tools can be used to identify the inputs that trigger each part of the program to perform. This makes it much easier for the auditing team to locate common stumbling blocks, thus reducing the audit turnaround time and allowing the human auditors to focus on new and more complex issues.</p>



<h3>4. Manual Testing</h3>



<p>The automated tools will not be able to understand the developer’s intentions. There will be situations where the software might be perfectly sound, but it will differ from what the developer initial wanted it to perform. This is why manual testing is also necessary. A quality auditing team will take in all of the specifications and then determine whether everything is working as intended. If it is not, they will notify the development team and provide recommendations on how to fix the issues.</p>



<h3>5. Providing You With a Report</h3>



<p>Once the audit has been completed, your internal team or the contractor performing the audit will provide you with a detailed report on the work that has been performed and the findings. The development team must need to understand all of the issues detected and the audit team will make recommendations of the needed patches. In fact, it is a good idea to conduct an additional audit to make sure that all of the patches have been implemented and there are no identified vulnerabilities.</p>



<h2>Different Strokes for Different Folks</h2>



<p>It is important to understand that there is no perfect or standard approach for <a href="https://hacken.io/services/blockchain-security/smart-contract-security-audit/">smart contract auditing</a>. When push comes to shove, a lot of the big decisions will be left up to the auditing team and the development team might not agree with the recommended changes. This is where transparency is absolutely critical. In order to make sure that everybody is aware of the state of the project, all of the information must be available for open discussion, thus increasing the likelihood of a successful project. It would not make much sense to pin one team against another since, ultimately, everybody has the same goal. Everybody needs to understand that if vulnerabilities are found, it is not an indictment against them. It is the auditing team’s responsibility to protect the financial assets of the clients and the reputation of the company. Another hack like the one experienced by the DOA mentioned above would be disastrous for any organization, just like it was for the DOA itself.</p>

Smart contract security Audit 101

<h1>Introduction</h1>



<p>The<em> Mobile Application Penetration Testing Methodology</em> is a form of security testing used to analyze security from inside of a mobile environment. That built on OWASP mobile application security verification standard. The <em>mobile application penetration testing methodology</em> concentrates on client-side safety, <u>file system</u>, <u>hardware</u>, and <u>network security</u>.</p>



<p>By conducting <em>penetration tests</em>, the company can gain knowledge of vulnerabilities in the mobile application, <em>bottlenecks</em>, <em>loopholes</em>, and <em>attack vectors</em> before delivering an app to the user. As a result, the company can change the design, code, and architecture before release. The cost of fixing the issue at this stage is less than addressing later when a breach or a flaw gets discovered. The price at post-rollout step joins not only financial matters but also PR, legal, and more.</p>



<h2>Stages</h2>



<p>The <em>Mobile Application Security Testing</em> divides into four stages:</p>



<ul><li><u>Preparation</u> - requires the pentester to obtain information that is crucial in knowing events that lead to the successful exploitation of mobile applications.</li><li><u>Evaluation</u> - analysis involves the penetration tester going through the mobile application and recognizing potential entry points and vulnerabilities that can exploit.</li><li><u>Exploitation</u> - penetration tester trying to exploit discovered vulnerabilities to take profit of the mobile application in a manner not meant by the programmer initially didn't expect.</li><li><u>Reporting</u> - it's involves reporting and presenting the discovered results in a manner that makes sense to management. That is also the stage that separates a penetration test from an attack. A complete discussion of the four steps follows.</li></ul>



<h1>Execution</h1>



<h4>Preparation</h4>



<p><u>Intelligence</u> gathering is the most significant step in a penetration test. The ability to find hidden cues that might shed light on the occurrence of vulnerability can be the difference within a successful and unsuccessful pentest. Reconnaissance involves next steps:</p>



<ol><li>The first stage is <em>open-source intelligence</em>(OSINT) gathering, which gives for a review of publicly accessible information and resources. Pentester searches information about the application in all possible sources. That can found on search engines and social networks, leaked source code through version control systems, developer boards, or even on the dark web.</li><li><em>Architecture understanding - p</em>enetration tester needs to understand the mobile application architecture, also from an outside point of view, to aid in generating a threat model for the application. The pentester brings into account the company following the app, its business case, and relevant stakeholders. The internal structures and processes are also addressed to account.</li><li><em>Client and server-side scenarios</em> - penetration tester needs to be able to recognize the type of application (native, hybrid, or web) and to manage test cases. The application network interfaces, user data, communication with third party resources, session management, jailbreaking/rooting detecting.</li></ol>



<h2>Assessment</h2>



<p>The process of mobile assessment applications is different because it challenges the penetration tester to compare the apps before and after installation. The evaluation techniques that encountered within the mobile security include:</p>



<ul><li><u>File system analysis</u> - pentester examines the local files written on the file system by the application to assure that there are no breaches.</li><li><u>Package analysis</u> - unpack the application installation bundles for the Android and iOS operating systems. An analysis should be done to assure that there are no changes in configurations of the compiled binary.</li><li><u>Reverse engineering</u> - means transforming the compiled applications into human-readable source code. The penetration tester analyzes the decompiled code to understand the intuitive application functionality and hunt for vulnerabilities. <em>Note:</em> An android application may be modified once changed and recompiled.</li><li><u>Static analysis</u> - penetration tester does not execute the application. The investigation is doing on the provided files or decompiled source code.</li><li><u>Dynamic analysis </u>- pentester reviews the mobile application as it runs on the device or emulator. Reviews done include a forensic examination of the file system, assessment of the network communication between the application and server, and an evaluation of the application's inter-process communication (IPC).</li><li><u>Inter-Process Communication Endpoint Analysis</u> - pentester reviews the different mobile application IPC endpoints. Assessment performing on:</li></ul>



<ol><li><em><u>Content providers</u></em> - these ensure that access to databases reached.</li><li><em><u>Intents</u></em> - these are signals used to send messages between components of the android system.</li><li><em><u>Broadcast receivers</u></em> - these receive and act on intents received from other applications on the android system.</li><li><em><u>Activities</u></em> - these make up the screens or pages within the application.</li><li><em><u>Services</u></em> - These run from the background and perform tasks regardless of whether the main application is running.</li></ol>



<p>&nbsp;<a href="https://hacken.io/research/industry-news-and-insights/disconnection-of-the-status-check-of-the-implementation-environment-in-the-android-apps/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Recommended to you.</a></p>



<h2>Exploitation</h2>



<p>Penetrations testing engineer operates upon the information determined from the information-gathering step to attack the mobile application. Entirely performed intelligence gathering ensures a high possibility of a successful project.</p>



<p>This phase includes exercising all potential vulnerabilities recognized in the previous stages of the assessment and trying to exploit them as an attacker would. Not only automatically recognize vulnerabilities that exploited, but issues requiring hand-operated classification and exploitation evaluated, as well. That involves business logic flaws, authentication/authorization bypasses, direct object references, parameter tampering, and session management. Pentester tries to exploit the vulnerability to gain sensitive information or perform malicious actions. Then finally delivers privilege escalation to raise to the most privileged user (root) to not face any restrictions on any actions that completed.</p>



<h1>Reporting</h1>



<h2>Preparing reports</h2>



<p>The output provided generally includes an executive-level paper and a technical report. The executive-level paper is written for management consumption and covers a high-level summary of assessment activities, scope, most critical vulnerabilities discovered, overall risk scoring. The technical report, on the other hand, includes all vulnerabilities fixed individually, with specifications on how to recreate the vulnerability, understand the risk, recommended remediation operations, and helpful reference links.</p>



<h2>Presentation</h2>



<p>The final activity in any assessment being a presentation of all documentation to the client. We walk the client within the information provided, make any updates needed, and address questions regarding the assessment output. Following this activity, we'll give new revisions of documentation and schedule any formal retesting, if it is applicable.</p>



<h2>Remediation testing</h2>



<p>When client finish with vulnerabilities penetration tester validate and approve it.</p>

Mobile Application Penetration Testing Methodology

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