MobSF: Open-source security research platform for mobile apps
The Mobile Security Framework (MobSF) is an open-source research platform for mobile application security, encompassing Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile.
MobSF can be used for mobile app security assessment, penetration testing, malware analysis, and privacy evaluation. The Static Analyzer is adept at handling popular mobile app binaries such as APK, IPA, APPX, and source code. The Dynamic Analyzer is compatible with Android and iOS applications, providing a platform for instrumented testing that includes real-time data and network traffic analysis.
MobSF integrates into DevSecOps or CI/CD pipelines facilitated by REST APIs and CLI tools, enhancing your security workflow.
MobSF possesses the capability to conduct static analysis simply through the upload of mobile app binaries. This feature enables even individuals without specialized knowledge to generate security reports for mobile applications.
Additionally, for more experienced mobile security researchers, MobSF offers an interactive dynamic analysis environment. This environment allows for the operation and instrumentation of Android and iOS applications, facilitating real-time security analysis.
“Before MobSF, there were multiple scattered tools available to security engineers. One needs to get experience in these to perform a successful security assessment. MobSF drastically automated many of the tools/processes in this pipeline, making them transparent to the analyst,” Ajin Abraham, Security Researcher and creator of the Mobile Security Framework told Help Net Security.
“In the case of dynamic analysis, it’s always time-consuming to create a VM/device and configure it properly to perform dynamic analysis. We were able to automate all of the environment creation work. To perform dynamic analysis, point a supported VM to MobSF, which will set up the environment, install the agents, configure HTTPs proxy, bypass generic app protections, etc. You can now focus more on testing than spending time on setup and troubleshooting an environment,” Abraham added.
The Mobile Security Framework (MobSF) is available for free on GitHub.
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