The Mobile Security Framework (MobSF) is an open source research platform for mobile application security, spanning Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile.
MobSF can be used for mobile application security assessment, penetration testing, malware analysis and privacy assessment. Static Analyzer is adept at handling popular mobile application binaries such as APK, IPA, APPX and source code. 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 enabled by REST APIs and CLI tools, improving your security workflow.
MobSF has the ability to perform static analysis by simply loading mobile application binaries. This feature allows 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 enables the operation and instrumentation of Android and iOS applications, facilitating real-time security analysis.
“Before MobSF, there were more scattered tools available to security engineers. A successful safety assessment requires experience in doing so. MobSF has drastically automated many of the tools/processes in this pipeline, making them transparent to analysts,” said Ajin Abraham, security researcher and creator of the Mobile Security Framework for Help Net Security.
“In case of dynamic analysis, it is always time-consuming to create a VM/device and configure it correctly to perform dynamic analysis. We managed to automate all the work of creating the environment. To perform dynamic analysis, point a supported VM to MobSF, which will set up the environment, install agents, configure HTTPs proxies, bypass generic application protections, etc. Now you can focus more on testing than spending time setting up and troubleshooting the environment,” he added is Abraham.
The Mobile Security Framework (MobSF) is available for free on GitHub.
Must read: 15 Open Source Cybersecurity Tools You Wish You’d Known Earlier
More open source tools to consider: