Mobile Security — Mobile App Security (iOS and Android): How to Master Mobile App Pentesting and Protect Your Product

The mobile phone has long ceased to be just a phone. It contains banking apps, medical data, corporate email, messengers, and access to smart home systems. And that is why smartphones have become one of the main targets for attackers. For companies, a mobile app breach means not only customer data leaks, but also reputational damage, regulatory fines, and loss of trust.

In 2026, the demand for specialists who can find and fix vulnerabilities in iOS and Android apps is only growing. Banks, fintech startups, marketplaces, medical platforms — all of them are looking for developers with a security mindset and pentesters specializing in the mobile platform. But where can you learn this systematically? Let’s take a look at the course “Mobile Security — Mobile App Security (iOS and Android)” from Asibiont.

What Is This Course: A Brief Overview

The course “Mobile Security — Mobile App Security (iOS and Android)” on the Asibiont platform is a hands-on program for anyone who wants to understand mobile app security from scratch or level up existing skills. You’ll work with the real tools used by professional pentesters: MobSF, Frida, Objection, Burp Suite, Drozer, APKTool.

The course covers both key mobile platforms — iOS and Android. This is important because their security approaches differ: iOS has a closed ecosystem and strict App Store policies, while Android offers more freedom for analysis and testing. A specialist who understands both platforms is significantly more valued in the job market.

The program is built around the OWASP Mobile Top 10 methodology — the de facto standard for assessing mobile app risks. According to this Open Worldwide Application Security Project document, the main problems involve insecure data storage, unsecured communication, weak authentication, and incorrect permission checks. The course also covers the requirements of the OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS), which help establish a secure development process.

Who This Course Is For

The course is designed for a wide audience, but is especially useful for:

• Mobile app developers. You’ll learn to write code that is hard to break: store secrets properly, encrypt data, protect traffic, and build authentication.
• QA engineers and QA automation specialists. Testers who know the basics of pentesting can find critical bugs before release — this makes them indispensable.
• Beginning pentesters. If you already know what Burp Suite is, but have never analyzed an APK for security, the course will give you a systematic foundation.
• Security engineers and students of information security specialties. A good opportunity to fill the gap specifically in mobile security, which is often not covered in universities.

Mobile security training is one of the most practice-oriented fields in information security. Learning terms is not enough: you need hands-on skills, configuring environments, running tools, and interpreting their results. That’s why the course is structured as a series of practical steps rather than a set of abstract lectures.

What You’ll Learn in the Course

1. Analyze Traffic and Find Vulnerabilities in Communication

Most modern apps communicate with servers over HTTP/HTTPS. An attacker only needs to intercept traffic to steal tokens, personal data, or modify requests. In the course, you’ll learn to use Burp Suite, the standard tool for intercepting and modifying traffic. You’ll examine what insecure data transmission looks like, why HTTP instead of HTTPS is dangerous, why you shouldn’t trust self-signed certificates, and how to detect weak authentication.

2. Reverse Engineer APK and IPA Files

One of the key tasks in mobile pentesting is extracting an app’s source code and resources. The course covers APK reverse engineering using APKTool and other tools. You’ll learn to decompile an app, read manifests, and find hardcoded keys and sensitive data. This is not just a hacking skill — it’s a defense skill: understanding how decompilation works will help you obfuscate code properly.

3. Work with Dynamic Analysis Tools: Frida and Objection

Static analysis shows what is written in the code, but not how the app behaves at runtime. Frida and Objection let you attach to a running app, intercept functions, bypass integrity checks, and manipulate behavior. In the course, you’ll learn dynamic analysis on real examples — from intercepting encryption functions to bypassing SSL pinning.

4. Set Up SSL Pinning and Protection Against Interception

SSL pinning is one of the most important defenses against MITM (man-in-the-middle) attacks. Many companies only add pinning after a pentester demonstrates traffic interception. You’ll learn how to implement pinning correctly, how to bypass it during tests, and why you should never simply disable certificate validation in production.

5. Protect Data at Rest and in Transit

Data at rest is what’s stored on the device: SQLite databases, caches, files. Developers often forget that any file can be extracted from a rooted device or after a jailbreak. The course teaches you to encrypt data properly, use secure storage, and avoid storing sensitive information in plain text.

6. Design Secure Authentication and APIs

In 2026, almost every app has a backend. A vulnerable API can negate all the security of the client code. You’ll examine the main problems: lack of rate limiting, weak authentication methods, incorrect access control checks, and information leaks in server responses. And you’ll gain practical skills for securing APIs.

7. Use MobSF for Automated Analysis

MobSF is a free framework for static and dynamic analysis of mobile apps. It can find known vulnerabilities, check configurations, and detect insecure API calls. In the course, you’ll learn to run MobSF and interpret its reports.

Cheat Sheet: Key Tools

What Practice Looks Like: A Mini Case Study

Imagine you’re given the APK file of a banking app. As a first step, you run MobSF and get an automated report. The report shows that the app stores an OAuth token in SharedPreferences — the equivalent of a plain text file in the Android sandbox. Technically, an attacker with root access can read that file. MobSF also shows that the app does not validate certificates, which means the traffic can be intercepted.

Next, you connect Burp Suite, set up a proxy, and see that the app sends the password in a POST request without encryption. To confirm the vulnerability, you run Frida and write a hook for the function that reads the token. Within a minute, you have the token in hand. Now you can document the issue and suggest fixes: move the token to Keychain or Keystore, add SSL pinning, and use a secure connection.

These are exactly the kinds of tasks you learn to solve in the course. Not “in theory,” but with the same tools that professionals use.

How Learning on Asibiont Works

Asibiont uses AI-based learning: the platform generates personalized text lessons for each student. This means you don’t have to study the same lectures recorded for the “average learner.” The neural network analyzes your level, goals, and already completed material, and then builds a program so you can reach results faster.

The training is fully text-based. Why is that a plus? Text materials are easy to read on any device; you can return to difficult sections, take your own notes, and quickly search for what you need. There’s no fixed schedule — access is available 24/7. You can study at your own pace: an hour a day or a few hours on weekends.

The AI system explains complex topics in simple language. For example, the issue of SSL pinning may initially seem confusing: what is a pin, how does it relate to a certificate, and how is it different from regular validation. The platform can