Course Objectives

This course will take any student and make sure that:

• The general level of proficiency is much higher than when they came
• The skills acquired can be immediately applied to mobile app security assessments
• Skills can be sharpened via continued education in our training portal for free
• The student is equipped to defeat common mobile app assessment challenges
• People who are new to mobile security will learn a lot in this training.
• Advanced students will come out with enhanced skills and more efficient workflows
• The skills gained are highly practical and applicable to real-world assessments

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

Topics Included

1. Review of Common Flaws in Source Code and at Runtime
2. Modification of App Behavior Through Code/Configuration Changes
3. Interception of Network Communication aka MitM
4. Jailbreak/Root Detection Bypasses and App Review from a Privileged Standpoint
5. Instrumentation (Review and Modification of App Behavior)
6. CTF Challenges for Attendants to Test Their Skills

Prerequisites

This course has no prerequisites as it is designed to accommodate students with different skills:

• Advanced students will enjoy comprehensive labs, extra miles and CTF challenges
• Less experienced students complete what they can during the class, and can continue at their own pace from home using the training portal.

This said, the more you learn about the following ahead of the course, the more you willget out of the course:

• Linux command line basics
• Android basics
• iOS basic

Hardware & Software required

A laptop with the following specifications:

• 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 12-14) 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

Who should attend

Any mobile developer, penetration tester or person interested in mobile security will benefit from attending this training regardless of the initial skill level:

The course is for beginners, intermediate and advanced level students. While beginners are introduced to the nuances of mobile app security from scratch, intermediate and advanced level learners get to perfect both their knowledge and skills on the subject. Extra mile challenges are available in every module to help more advanced students polish their skills.

The course is crafted in a way that regardless of your skill level you will significantly improve your mobile security skills:

If you are new and cannot complete the labs during the class, that is OK, as you keep training portal access, you will learn a lot in the class but can continue from home with the training portal.

If you are more advanced in mobile security you can try to complete the labs in full and then take the CTF challenges we have for each day, you will likely also attempt to complete some exercises from home later :)

What to expect

A fully practical class that will seriously improve your mobile security knowledge and skills, regardless of the skill level you come in with.

Battle-tested tips and tricks that take your abilities to the next level and that you can apply as soon as you go back to your workplace, making security testing of mobile apps as efficient as possible.

Intensive hands-on exercises that challenge you to deep dive into the world of mobile security.

Lifetime access to training portal (including all future updates), unlimited email support, access to private groups to communicate with other students, mandated, police, IoT and otherwise interesting apps from various countries.

What not to expect

This is ​more​ than a virtual attendance course: You get the online 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​.

The course does ​not​ cover: Android or iOS 0-day, exploits against the platforms themselves, ARM exploit writing, writing buffer or heap overflows.

Do ​not​ expect the teachers to be talking through slides most of the time: This class is practical not theoretical, the teachers don’t bore you with slides all the time, instead you do exercises all the time and the teachers help you solve the challenges you face as you complete them.

Course Content

Day 1: Hacking Android & IoT apps by Example

Part 0 - 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 - 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 2 - Dynamic Analysis

• 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 3 - Test Your Skills

• CTF time, including finding IoT vulnerabilities through app analysis

Day 2: Hacking iOS & IoT apps by Example

Part 0 - 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 1 - 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 - Dynamic Analysis

• 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 3 - Test your Skills

• CTF time, including finding IoT vulnerabilities through app analysis