Secure Android Design and Development
Secure Android Design and Development
From App Layer to HAL
About the Book
Deepen your understanding of Android’s security architecture, core cybersecurity principles, and defensive design practices.
Learn how real attacks happen — and verify your understanding through practical, hands-on examples.
You will learn how to:
• Evaluate your Android app’s security posture using real attack scenarios and threat‑modeling techniques.
• Harden your apps and system components against common vulnerabilities, from insecure storage to IPC and HAL abuse.
• Read and reason about Android’s security architecture so you can spot design flaws before they reach production
Who this book is for
• Android developers who ship apps to millions of users and can’t afford security incidents.
• Tech leads and architects who must enforce security standards across teams.
• Security engineers and pentesters who need a practical map of Android’s security model.
Read and reason about Android’s security architecture to spot design flaws before they reach production
About the Author
Team Discounts
Get a team discount on this book!
Reader Testimonials
Hamid Moayeri
Chief Technical Officer at Samin Argham Smart Systems
It’s rare to come across a post, article, or even a book that offers a clear, thoughtful analysis of what’s going on behind these security incidents. If you're an Android developer — or planning to become one — and you'd rather not gift your users a shiny new zero-day vulnerability, this book is a must-read
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Brief
- The story of the book
- No magic at all!
- How to read the book
- Who is the book written for?
- The big picture
- Do We Need to Secure an Android Application?
- Principles and Methodologies
- Gravity of principles (The rules of the game)
- The Fail-Safe vs Fail-Secure Principle (Planning for the Unexpected)
- Least Common Mechanism
- Separation of Privilege and Least Privilege
- The Zero Trust Principle: Trust No One, Verify Everything
- KISS: The Principle of Least Complexity in Security
- Defense in Depth
- Defensive, Offensive, and Aggressive Programming
- Notes on Modularity, cohesion, and coupling
- Securing the Development Lifecycle
- Design Review
- Code Review
- Regular Security Assessments
- Security Requirements
- Integrating Security Testing
- Threat Modeling, Standards and Guidelines
- Shostack’s Four Question Framework
- Threat Modelling frameworks
- Security Standards and Guidelines
- Some keywords to know
- Attack and Defense
- We don’t need to experience it again!
- Why are we not learning from history?
- How you will be attacked
- How to Defend
- Act as a chief
- Common Programming Mistakes
- Memory safety
- C and C++
- Java
- Kotlin
- Real world examples
- Data Validation
- Untrusted Data Sources
- Input Validation
- Encoding Methods
- Sanitizing user inputs
- Android Security Model
- Let’s open the onion layers
- Application Sandbox and Android Runtime
- Application Signing
- Permission and Package Manager
- SELinux
- AndroidManifest and Components
- Inter-process communication
- HAL Layer
- Play Integrity
- Jetpack libraries
- Protecting Data
- Data life-cycle
- What Google has done to address insecure storage
- File Integrity Verification
- Private Space
- Authentication, Network, and Protocols
- Android AccountManager for Access Control
- Credential Manager
- Android Biometric Authentication
- Android Network Security Configuration
- Sniffing
- Certificate Pinning in Android Applications
- Implementing SSL/TLS for Android Network Communications
- OAuth and OpenID Connect for Android Applications
- Bluetooth
- Practical Scenarios
- Financial Android Application
- Key Provider Service
- Sensor HAL Layer Daemon
- Vehicle Data Logger Application
- Compilers and Tools
- Clang and GCC Security Features
- Obfuscation
- R8
- Notes on hiding keys, secrets and credentials
- Static and Dynamic Analysis Tools
- Last word
- About the Author
- Abbreviations Glossary
- References
- Appendix
- Security Standards and Guidelines
- A detailed STRIDE and TARA comparison
- Useful tools
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