Professional Mobile Penetration Testing Services
At Trilight Security, we specialize in mobile application penetration testing services, helping organizations secure their mobile platforms against cyber threats. With a presence in the USA and the EU, including a strong focus on Germany, we are a trusted partner for companies seeking to protect their mobile applications and user data. We test native iOS and Android applications, hybrid apps built on React Native, Flutter, Ionic, and Cordova, and progressive web apps — covering the full spectrum of mobile architectures your users depend on. Get in touch with Trilight Security to discover how our mobile pentesting services can enhance your mobile app security and resilience!
Our Offering
Black Box Pentesting
We provide black box pen testing services, when we have no access to the source code or internal design of the system, and rely on public information such as the system’s behavior, inputs, and outputs.
Grey Box Pentesting
We conduct grey box pentests, when we have partial knowledge of the target system — such as limited architecture documentation, API schemas, or user credentials — but without full access to source code.
White Box Pentesting
We conduct white box pentests, when we have complete information about the target system, including its architecture, source code, and access to sensitive data, to allow deeper examination.
Why Mobile Penetration Testing?
Mobile apps are prime targets for cybercriminals, making mobile security a top priority for organizations handling sensitive user data. A mobile penetration test simulates real-world attacks on your mobile app, exposing potential weaknesses in areas such as data storage, API security, authentication, and session management. By identifying these vulnerabilities proactively, we help you prevent data breaches, protect user information, and maintain regulatory compliance across industries. For teams following agile or DevSecOps practices, we also support recurring engagement models that align security testing with your release cadence — ensuring that new versions, updated SDKs, or changed API integrations are assessed before they reach production users, not months after.
What We Test — Android & iOS
Our testers hold in-depth, platform-native expertise across both major mobile operating systems. Testing is tailored to the specific attack surface of each platform rather than applied generically.
Android
We assess exported activities, services, broadcast receivers, and content providers for unauthorized access and intent injection. We review the AndroidManifest.xml for over-privileged permission declarations, evaluate Android Keystore usage and SharedPreferences security, test deep link and custom URL scheme handling for hijacking vulnerabilities, and assess WebView configurations for JavaScript injection and cross-origin data leakage.
iOS
We examine Keychain storage practices and entitlement configurations, review the Info.plist for leaked backend URLs and internal service schemes, test universal link and custom URL scheme handling, assess ATS (App Transport Security) configuration and any exceptions declared, and evaluate data stored in NSUserDefaults, Core Data, and the application sandbox for sensitive information exposure.
Hybrid & Cross-Platform Apps
We test applications built on React Native, Flutter, Ionic, Cordova, and other cross-platform frameworks, addressing both the platform-native wrapper layer and the JavaScript/Dart business logic layer, including inter-layer communication security and bundled asset exposure.
What We Test – OWASP Mobile Top 10
Our assessments provide systematic coverage of all ten OWASP Mobile Top 10 (2024) vulnerability categories:
- M1 — Improper Credential Usage: Hardcoded credentials, insecure credential storage, and cleartext transmission of authentication data in transit and at rest.
- M2 — Inadequate Supply Chain Security: Vulnerable third-party SDKs, outdated dependencies with known CVEs, and insecure library configurations bundled into the application package.
- M3 — Insecure Authentication & Authorization: Weak authentication mechanisms, missing or bypassable MFA, improper session token handling, insecure direct object references between user accounts, and function-level access control bypass.
- M4 — Insufficient Input & Output Validation: Injection flaws via mobile API inputs, client-side validation bypass, and insecure handling of data passed between app components.
- M5 — Insecure Communication: Missing or improperly implemented SSL/TLS, certificate pinning bypass, cleartext HTTP traffic, and insecure WebSocket configurations.
- M6 — Inadequate Privacy Controls: Excessive data collection, insecure handling of PII in logs, caches, and backups, and improper consent and data retention implementations.
- M7 — Insufficient Binary Protections: Missing obfuscation, absent anti-tamper and anti-debugging controls, and binary-level secret extraction by an attacker with access to the application package.
- M8 — Security Misconfiguration: Insecure platform permissions, exported Android components, ATS exceptions on iOS, insecure WebView configurations, and overprivileged entitlements.
- M9 — Insecure Data Storage: Sensitive data stored in SharedPreferences, NSUserDefaults, SQLite databases, external storage, and application sandbox files accessible to other apps or device backups.
- M10 — Insufficient Cryptography: Weak or deprecated algorithms, hardcoded encryption keys, insecure random number generation, and improper key management in Keychain and Android Keystore.
Penetration Testing Process
We use a combination of manual and automated methods to simulate real-world attacks on applications, systems, and networks. Typically pen testing projects include following stages:
- Information Gathering: We collect essential details about your mobile application, such as platform (iOS or Android), API endpoints, architecture, and potential risks within connected services.
- Static Analysis (SAST): We decompile and analyze the app binary — APK for Android and IPA for iOS — without executing it. This phase covers hardcoded credentials and API keys, insecure permissions declarations, weak or broken cryptographic implementations, plaintext sensitive data embedded in the binary, and vulnerable third-party library versions. Where source code is available under a white box engagement, it is reviewed directly alongside the binary.
- Dynamic Analysis (DAST): We test the live, running application to observe its real-world behavior under attack conditions. This covers runtime data leakage, API communication security, SSL/TLS validation and certificate pinning enforcement, session token handling, and authentication bypass attempts. Testing is conducted on real or virtualized devices with proxy interception configured to capture and manipulate all traffic between the app and its backend.
- Binary Analysis & Reverse Engineering: Using decompilation and disassembly tools, we reverse engineer the application binary to examine its internal logic, permission model, and embedded assets. We assess whether the app resists unauthorized modification — evaluating the strength of obfuscation, the presence of anti-tampering controls, and whether sensitive logic or secrets can be extracted by an attacker who obtains the application package. For Android apps this includes full APK decompilation and AndroidManifest.xml review; for iOS apps this includes IPA extraction, Info.plist analysis, and binary symbol inspection.
- Runtime Integrity & Anti-Tamper Testing: We assess whether the application correctly detects and responds to compromised device states. This includes attempting to bypass jailbreak detection (iOS) and root detection (Android), circumventing anti-debugging and anti-tampering controls, and testing the app's behavior when executed in an instrumented or emulated environment. Apps that fail these checks can be fully instrumented by an attacker, allowing them to hook into functions at runtime, bypass authentication controls, and extract secrets from memory — regardless of how well the binary is protected at rest.
- Third-Party SDK & Dependency Assessment: Modern mobile applications bundle numerous third-party SDKs for analytics, advertising, crash reporting, payments, and authentication. Each SDK represents an independently maintained codebase that may carry its own vulnerabilities, excessive data collection practices, or insecure configurations. We inventory all embedded SDKs and libraries, check their versions against known CVE databases, assess what data they collect and where they transmit it, and evaluate whether they introduce attack surface that the primary application's own security controls do not cover.
- Business Logic Testing: Automated scanners cannot detect flaws in application-specific workflows. We manually probe the logic that governs your app's core functionality — including authentication flows, transaction processing, access controls between user roles, and any feature involving financial value or privileged data. This phase targets vulnerabilities such as parameter tampering to manipulate prices or entitlements, authentication step bypasses, insecure direct object references between accounts, and abuse of referral, coupon, or loyalty mechanisms.
- Exploitation: We attempt to exploit identified vulnerabilities to determine how an attacker might gain unauthorized access to your app or sensitive data. This phase focuses on mobile-specific risks such as insecure session management, weak API security, and cryptographic flaws.
- Privilege Escalation: Once initial access is gained, we explore ways to escalate privileges within the app to access more sensitive data or functionalities, demonstrating the potential impact of each vulnerability.
- Maintaining Access: We evaluate ways in which an attacker might retain access to your mobile app, even after the app is closed or if security measures are applied. This stage highlights persistence methods that attackers could use to stay undetected.
- Reporting: Our reports are thorough and developer-friendly, offering clear technical and business insights into the identified vulnerabilities. Each report includes: 1. A detailed attack narrative that explains how potential attacks could unfold, helping your team understand the risks. 2. Specific remediation recommendations that are practical and actionable. 3. Compliance information to help meet standards such as OWASP MASVS, NIST, and other relevant frameworks in mobile security.
Our Benefits
Top Certifications
Our experts have high skills proven by many years of success and top certifications such as OSCE, OSCP, eWPTX, eMAPT, Crest, and others.
Top Methodologies
OWASP Mobile Application Security Testing Guide (MASTG), Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS), OWASP Mobile Top 10, NIST, CREST, and others.
Rich Deliverables
We provide sophisticated pentest reports with details of the discovered vulnerabilities, remediation advice, attack narratives, and other content at the customer’s discretion.
Cost Efficiency
One of our advantages is access to top cybersecurity and IT talents with many years of experience in demanding enterprise environments at affordable cost.
Penetration Testing Methodologies
We utilize standards and frameworks specific to mobile applications, including the OWASP Mobile Application Security Testing Guide (MASTG) and Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS), along with the OWASP Mobile Top 10, NIST SP 800-163, and ISO/IEC 27001. These methodologies provide a comprehensive approach to identifying and addressing mobile-specific vulnerabilities, covering areas like data storage, API security, session management, and cryptography.
Tools
Our experts tailor their toolset based on the testing type — whether black box, grey box, or white box — and the specific platform and architecture of the target application. For static analysis and binary reverse engineering we use MobSF (Mobile Security Framework), jadx, apktool, and Ghidra. For dynamic analysis, runtime instrumentation, and certificate pinning bypass we use Frida, Objection, and Burp Suite. Network traffic analysis is conducted with Wireshark and OWASP ZAP. All findings are validated manually by experienced testers — automated output is always reviewed and filtered for false positives before inclusion in the report.
Our Certifications
Deliverables
- Executive Summary: A high-level overview of the pentest results and overall risk exposure, written for management and non-technical stakeholders.
- Test Plan: A document outlining the scope, objectives, methodology, and timeline of the engagement.
- Detailed Technical Report: A comprehensive report documenting all findings, including vulnerability descriptions aligned to the OWASP Mobile Top 10, CVSS risk ratings, step-by-step proof-of-concept exploitation walkthroughs, and prioritised remediation guidance for each identified issue.
- Vulnerability Assessment: A full inventory of all vulnerabilities discovered during the engagement, prioritised by exploitability and business impact.
- OWASP MASTG / MASVS Compliance Mapping: A structured mapping of findings and remediation recommendations to the OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS) control requirements — directly usable for compliance audits and App Store security review documentation.
- Evidence: Screenshots, traffic captures, decompiled binary excerpts, and other supporting artefacts for all findings.
- Action Plan: A structured remediation roadmap with specific recommended actions, suggested timelines, and responsible parties for each identified issue.
A presentation or briefing for relevant stakeholders — including a summary of findings, risk exposure, and recommended next steps — can be prepared upon request. After a follow-up retest to confirm that all identified vulnerabilities have been remediated, we issue a Pentest Certificate, which can be used for compliance audits, App Store security certifications, and customer communications.
Read more here:
About Mobile Application Penetration Testing
Pitfalls of Mobile Penetration Testing Service. Part I
Penetration Test Report Sample
Penetration testing is a must for any business using digital services. We use different comprehensive tools, methodologies, and models for pentesting. DOWNLOAD our penetration test report sample and learn more.
FAQ
Mobile penetration testing is a security assessment that simulates cyberattacks on mobile applications to identify vulnerabilities and ensure robust security measures are in place.
It helps organizations detect vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them, protecting user data, ensuring compliance with industry regulations, and enhancing trust in your mobile applications.
We test various mobile applications, including native iOS and Android apps, hybrid applications, and progressive web apps, covering different architectures and platforms.
Our process covers the full mobile attack surface across static and dynamic layers. Static Analysis (SAST) decompiles the app binary to identify hardcoded credentials, insecure permissions, and weak cryptography. Dynamic Analysis (DAST) tests the running application for runtime data leakage, certificate pinning bypass, and API security. Binary Analysis and Reverse Engineering assesses obfuscation strength and anti-tamper controls. Runtime Integrity Testing attempts to bypass jailbreak and root detection. Third-Party SDK Assessment inventories all embedded libraries against known CVE databases. Business Logic Testing probes authentication flows, transaction processing, and access control logic for abuse paths. All findings are manually validated before reporting.
The duration depends on the app’s complexity, the depth of testing required, and the type of application. On average, it may take between one to three weeks.
Our testing adheres to the OWASP Mobile Application Security Testing Guide (MASTG), the Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS), and the OWASP Mobile Top 10, supplemented by regulatory guidelines such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS as applicable.
Our testing is conducted in controlled environments, ensuring that there’s no adverse effect on the live environment or app functionality during or after the testing process.
Yes, we can test mobile applications at any stage of development, including early beta versions and final releases, to help strengthen security throughout the development lifecycle.
We provide a detailed report that includes identified vulnerabilities, their risk levels, potential impacts, and actionable remediation steps. Reports are tailored to be understandable for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Yes, our team is available to consult on remediation efforts, offering guidance on best practices and ensuring that security gaps are effectively closed.
It’s advisable to conduct mobile penetration testing regularly, especially after major app updates, significant code changes, or in response to emerging threats, ideally on an annual or semi-annual basis.
Typically, we’ll need app binaries, access to development environments (if applicable), and documentation on app functionalities and APIs to begin a comprehensive test.
Yes, penetration testing involves actively exploiting identified vulnerabilities to assess their real-world impact, whereas vulnerability scanning is an automated process that only identifies potential issues without exploitation.
Yes, our mobile penetration tests can be tailored to meet compliance standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), and other relevant regulatory requirements.
The cost depends on factors including the platform tested (iOS, Android, or both), the testing type (black, grey, or white box), application complexity, the number of API endpoints in scope, and whether source code review is included. Engagements for a single platform typically range from €1,5-2K, depending on depth and scope — a fraction of the average cost of a data breach, which exceeded €9 million per incident in Europe in 2024. Contact us for a detailed, obligation-free quote tailored to your application and compliance requirements.
Our Recognition
