Mobile applications operate across different devices and environments, making security an important part of application development and deployment. As mobile threats continue to evolve, developers need a clear way to understand the risks that can affect applications and the areas requiring stronger protection.
The OWASP Mobile Top 10 provides a structured view of major mobile application security risks, covering areas such as credentials, authentication, communication, privacy, binary protection, data storage, and cryptography. Understanding these categories can help teams examine different aspects of application security and recognize the protection measures relevant to modern mobile applications and their operating environments.
What the OWASP Mobile Security List Covers
The mobile risk list has changed over time to reflect developments in application security. The 2024 version contains ten categories covering different areas of mobile application protection. Compared with the 2016 version, some categories were introduced, some were combined, and others were removed as separate categories.
The categories are:
- Improper Credential Usage
- Inadequate Supply Chain Security
- Insecure Authentication and Authorization
- Insufficient Input and Output Validation
- Insecure Communication
- Inadequate Privacy Controls
- Insufficient Binary Protections
- Security Misconfiguration
- Insecure Data Storage
- Insufficient Cryptography
Understanding these areas gives development and security teams a way to examine different parts of a mobile application and identify where protection needs attention.
Improper Credential Usage
Improper Credential Usage focuses on the way credentials are handled and protected within a mobile application. The 2024 list introduces this category as a specific area of concern. Credentials are an important part of application access, so their handling is included among the key mobile security risks identified in the updated list.
Inadequate Supply Chain Security
Modern applications can involve dependencies and other components beyond the application’s directly developed code. Inadequate Supply Chain Security was introduced in the 2024 list to address risks associated with third-party dependencies and the broader application supply chain.
This category expands the security discussion beyond the application’s own functionality and considers the components that contribute to the application environment.
Insecure Authentication and Authorization
Authentication and authorization determine how applications handle identity and access. In the 2024 list, these areas are combined into a broader category that brings together concerns previously addressed separately.
The earlier list contained Insecure Authentication and Insecure Authorization as individual categories. The newer category combines and expands these concerns, emphasizing the importance of appropriate controls around authentication and authorization.
Insufficient Input and Output Validation
Input and output validation became a new category in the 2024 list. It focuses on checking data moving into and out of an application.
The material describes validation as important for preventing issues including SQL injection, command injection, and cross-site scripting. For example, an application that accepts search input without properly sanitizing it may create an opportunity for SQL commands to be introduced through that functionality.
Insecure Communication
Insecure Communication remains part of the updated list. It was also present in the 2016 version, showing that secure communication continues to be an identified area of mobile application security.
The risk focuses on communication security and remains relevant within the updated framework as applications exchange information across their operating environments.
Inadequate Privacy Controls
Privacy receives greater attention in the 2024 list through the Inadequate Privacy Controls category. This category was introduced to address privacy-related concerns associated with mobile applications.
Its inclusion reflects the importance of considering privacy controls as part of application security rather than treating security only as a matter of code or technical access controls.
Insufficient Binary Protections
Insufficient Binary Protections brings together several areas that appeared separately in the earlier list. The 2024 category incorporates concerns related to client code quality, code tampering, and reverse engineering.
Binary protection is therefore concerned with making mobile application code more resistant to tampering and reverse engineering. The published material identifies obfuscation, tamper detection, and binary hardening as relevant protection approaches for this area.
This category also connects closely with runtime protection. Mobile application security capabilities can address threats involving reverse engineering, application tampering, memory access, debugging, hooking, emulators, and compromised devices.
Security Misconfiguration
Security Misconfiguration is another category introduced in the 2024 list. It addresses security weaknesses resulting from incorrect or inadequate configuration within mobile application environments.
Its presence highlights that application security is not limited to individual vulnerabilities. Configuration choices can also influence how effectively an application is protected.
Insecure Data Storage
Insecure Data Storage remains an important category in the 2024 list and was also included in the 2016 version. It focuses on how information is stored within mobile applications.
The updated material connects this area with secure storage practices and protection of sensitive information. Data encryption is also included among the mobile application security capabilities described in the available materials.
Insufficient Cryptography
Insufficient Cryptography was another category retained from the earlier list. It addresses situations where cryptographic protection is not sufficient for the application’s security requirements.
Its continued presence in the 2024 list demonstrates that cryptography remains an important part of mobile application protection alongside authentication, communication, storage, privacy, and binary security.
How the Risks Have Evolved
The transition from the 2016 list to the 2024 version shows how mobile application security has evolved. Improper Platform Usage and Extraneous Functionality are no longer standalone categories, while several new areas have been introduced.
Authentication and authorization were combined, while client code quality, code tampering, and reverse engineering were consolidated under Insufficient Binary Protections. Insecure Communication, Insecure Data Storage, and Insufficient Cryptography remained in the updated framework.
This evolution gives security teams a broader framework for examining mobile applications across credentials, dependencies, data flows, communication, privacy, configuration, application binaries, storage, and cryptographic controls.
Conclusion
Understanding the OWASP Mobile Top 10 gives developers and security teams a structured way to examine key areas of mobile application security. The 2024 categories address credentials, supply chains, authentication, validation, communication, privacy, binaries, configuration, storage, and cryptography, providing a broader view of risks that can affect mobile applications and the security controls used to protect them.
For organizations seeking layered protection across mobile application environments, Doverunner offers Android and iOS security capabilities covering code protection, integrity protection, anti-debugging, memory access detection, emulator detection, rooting detection, and runtime protection. Their mobile application security approach addresses threats associated with reverse engineering, tampering, compromised environments, and runtime attacks, helping organizations strengthen application defenses across supported mobile platforms and security requirements.
