After thoroughly writing in detail about WordPress security, windows security and android security now is the time to write about security tips for an application developer. In android developing of a good android application can be monetized to have good amount of income on one side and if all of the security parameters are not been seen in complete detail then for sure, attackers do attack popular apps and if not protected correctly, then in the long run Google might blacklisted yours apps from appearing in Google Play Store.
Before building up any application most of the application developers knew that due to built-in security measures, the performance impact of security issues with applications reduces significantly. Android system runs most of these apps in its ecosystem where it works with sandboxing security mechanisms to provide performance improvements and security check-ups before an application runs with android. Besides, it does have file system permissions and restrictions issues attached to it which can make it more secure than ever before.
Android runs every application within perimeters of Android Application Sandbox which isolates each and every app from other apps while running in the system. Most of the apps have to run within specific application frameworks such as secure IPC, cryptography and permissions to help android system running in tandem with application management.
There is various improved technology that runs with apps in order to prevent common memory management errors and this also helps to reduce the time and the scope of attackers. Latest versions of Android runs with encrypted file management system that helps it to improve performance against common data loss and memory mismanagement of apps. In the case of lost or stolen device, an encrypted file system helps to make difficult for hackers to read data. Android runs various user granted permissions of management of apps to help to minimise data leaks.
Android security best practices for application developers:
Before discussing how data works with apps, there are fundamental principles of the store of data within android eco-system. There are three types of storage management in Android, first one is internal storage, then external storage and then storage for content providers. Internal storage for apps is only limited to file you create with app and android has its own security restrictions implemented in it and it works nicely. If you want to share your app data then use the content provider to make this process of sharing data easier.
Here your app can find dynamic permission in term of reading and write access to work your app in a fast manner. Further in order to make application data encrypted then use the local key file to make it encrypted so that most of the data will not be directly accessible by the application. In order to further improve your system, you can place the key in key store and put a password and can protect the lost device with file encryption policies.
When the files of the app are stored in external storages this can be read and write anywhere as it can be removed and then place it with various different kinds of devices starting from laptop, notebook and so on. As an application developer do not allow apps to store sensitive pieces of information such as passwords and other valuable pieces of information in external storages.
App developers should initiate input validation process in their app so that data coming from sources should be reviewed and easily configurable to stop data coming in from untrusted sources. All of the class files of the app should be stored inside internal storages, not external storages. This should be similar to that of executable files as these measures are needed for further improvement of security of apps.
When app loads file in external storage then files should load in the form of encryption as well as cryptographically verified in order to initiate the process of complete input validation. If your application does not provide such security measures then it is better to stop dynamic loading of apps in external storages.
The third storage option is to use content providers. It is limited to your own application and most of these stays with cloud mechanisms. While configuring your apps you can set your android: exported attribute to true to allow other apps to read your data. In this case, you have to specify permissions of your data to be read by other apps. If you want to share data of content provider within your apps then android:protectionLevel attribute to be set to signature permission and when the application is signed then it automatically signed with similar signature protection logging.
If you want to have more of granular and complete access then you can use attributes and methods in a similar manner so that most of these work incoherent and secure manner. Do not take lightly about reading and write permissions of data as this can help attackers by going log of phone numbers to modify any row and this can make most of that app vulnerable.
That is why fully control over reading and write of rules in order to stop predictable nature of the app. Basic android protection works with sandboxing of each and every app so that each of app runs in its own scope. If an app does need additional permissions then they go for additional permission out of the sandbox. The example is that if some app does need access to camera app then this needs additional permissions over sandbox permission.
In order to reduce the risk of application permissions which in a way protect the app from spurning out additional information so it is important to reduce the number of permissions an app need. This, in turn, provides user accessible and reduce the risk of prone to attacks from hackers. Remove unnecessary application permissions and if you see that some of the permissions that are there in the app do not need to app to function then remove those permissions immediately.
A successful app is that which does not require any permissions for user and if you are able to build that then it is better always as that app would be darling of masses as well as hackers would find it difficult to crack. When an app has to rely heavily on too much of data permission then due to the flow of so much of data over IPC, the hacker could find the route to access due to the availability of so much of data.
