Hacking Android and iOS apps by Example

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Instructors:

Abhishek J M, Anirudh Anand

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This course is the culmination of years of experience gained via practical pentesting of mobile applications as well as countless hours spent in research. We have structured this course around OWASP Mobile Security Testing Guide and it covers OWASP Mobile Top Ten. This course gives its participants actionable skills which can be applied in practice from day 1.

Each day starts with a brief introduction to the mobile platform for that day and then continues with a look at static analysis, moves on to dynamic checks finishing off with a nice CTF session to test the skills gained.

Course Content (TOC):

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Part 1 - Attacking Android apps by Example

Part 1.1

• Android Security Crash Course
• The state of Android Security
• Android security architecture and its components
• Android apps and the filesystem
• Android app signing, sandboxing and provisioning
• Recommended lab setup tips

Part 1.2

• Static Analysis with Runtime Checks
• Tools and techniques to retrieve/decompile/reverse and review APKs
• - Identification of the attack surface of Android apps and general information gathering
• - Identification of common vulnerability patterns in Android apps:
  • hardcoded secrets
  • logic bugs
  • access control flaws
  • intents
  • cool injection attacks and more
• The art of repackaging:
  • Tips to get around not having root
  • Manipulating the Android Manifest
  • Defeating SSL/TLS pinning
  • defeating root detection
  • Dealing with apps in foreign languages and more

Part 1.3

• Monitoring data: LogCat, Insecure file storage, Android Keystore, etc
• The art of MitM: Intercepting Network Communications
• The art of Instrumentation: Hooking with Xposed
• App behaviour monitoring at runtime
• Defeating Certificate Pinning and root detection at runtime
• Modifying app behaviour at runtime

Part 1.4

• CTF time, including finding IoT vulnerabilities through app analysis

Part 2 - Attacking iOS apps by Example

Part 2.1

• iOS Security Crash Course
• The state of iOS Security
• iOS security architecture and its components
• iOS app signing, sandboxing and provisioning
• iOS apps and the filesystem
• Recommended lab setup tips

Part 2.2

• Static Analysis with Runtime Checks
• Tools and techniques to retrieve/decompile/reverse and review IPAs
• Identification of the attack surface of iOS apps and general information gathering
• Identification of common vulnerability patterns in iOS apps:
  • hardcoded secrets
  • logic bugs
  • access control flaws
  • URL handlers
  • cool injection attacks and more
• Patching and Resigning iOS binaries to alter app behaviour
• Tips to test without a jailbreak

Part 2.3

• Monitoring data: caching, logs, app files, insecure file storage, iOS keychain, etc
• Crypto flaws
• The art of MitM: Intercepting Network Communications
• Defeating certificate pinning and jailbreak detection at runtime
• The art of Instrumentation: Introduction to Frida, Objection
• App behaviour monitoring at runtime
• Modifying app behaviour at runtime

Part 2.4

• CTF time, including finding IoT vulnerabilities through app analysis

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Pre-Requisite

• Ability to connect to wireless and wired networks
• Ability to read PDF files
• Administrative rights: USB allowed, the ability to deactivate AV, firewall, install tools, etc
• Knowledge of the BIOS password, in case VT is disabled.
• Minimum 8GB of RAM (recommended: 16GB+)
• 60GB+ of free disk space (to copy a lab VM and other goodies)
• VirtualBox 6.0 or greater, including the “VirtualBox Extension Pack”
• Genymotion (can be the free version)
• A mobile phone capable of receiving text messages
• A jailbroken iPhone / iDevice with iOS >=9 (ideally: iOS 12) for the iOS labs
• - Optional but useful: One of the following BurpSuite, ZAP or Fiddler (for MitM)
• Optional but useful: A Mac/Hackintosh with the latest XCode installed, for iOS code review & labs

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Attendees will be provided with

• Lifetime access to training portal, with all course materials
• Unlimited access to future updates and step-by-step video recordings
• Unlimited email support, if you need help while you practice at home later
• Government-mandated and police apps in various countries
• Many other excitingly vulnerable real-world apps
• IoT apps controlling Toys, Drones, etc
• Digital copies of all training material
• Custom Build Lab VMs
• Purpose Build Vulnerable Test apps
• Source code for test apps

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Who Should Attend

This is more than a physical attendance course: You get the physical course but also lifetime access to a training portal with step-by-step video recordings, slides and lab exercises, including all future updates for free

Students can take the course at their own pace and training portal access ensures topics can be reviewed on an ad-hoc basis as required by the student online after the course.

This training has been built from real issues seen in real applications, not fabricated vulnerabilities that you will never see in practice.

The goal is to start from the basics and ensure that each student comes out of the training with a significantly higher level of proficiency in the artistry of mobile pentesting.

Students will be taught of ways to identify the attack surface of mobile apps, exploit interesting vulnerabilities and means to fix them. Ranging from fun defeating root/jailbreak detection, pinning, modifying app behaviour at runtime to inspecting what apps are doing in real time. The training also covers effective identification and exploitation of common vulnerability patterns, modification of Android and iOS apps at rest and at runtime, and more.

As the course has been written and carefully created by a professional mobile app penetration tester, after many years of experience, many practical tips will be shared to leverage automation and make penetration testing more efficient as soon as the student goes back to their office.

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