You ever look at your phone and wonder, "How secure is the app I just downloaded to order burritos at midnight?" Spoiler alert: probably not as secure as you'd hope. Welcome to Hacking Mobile Apps: A Penetration Tester's Handbook, your no-nonsense, laugh-out-loud, hands-dirty guide to legally breaking mobile applications-and making them better because of it. I'm Nero Quell, your slightly sleep-deprived author, ethical hacker, and someone who's spent more time inside mobile apps than most developers who built them.
This isn't just another dry cybersecurity manual filled with buzzwords, abstract theory, or a hundred pages on cryptographic padding. Nope. This is a story-driven, tool-packed, step-by-step adventure through the art and science of mobile app penetration testing. Whether you're a complete beginner or a grizzled security pro looking to level up your mobile game, this book has something for you-and a few sarcastic jokes for free.
Across ten fully-loaded chapters, you'll learn how to:
- Build your own mobile app pentesting lab without sacrificing your sanity (or your Wi-Fi)
- Rip apart Android and iOS apps using both static and dynamic analysis tools
- Intercept, manipulate, and break insecure network communications like a polite digital ninja
- Exploit authentication flaws, session mismanagement, and biometric blunders
- Identify insecure data storage practices that would make even your grandma nervous
- Reverse engineer mobile apps and inject code like you're rewriting their DNA
- Study real-world case studies where apps were pwned (and what they did wrong)
And the best part? You'll learn by doing. This book isn't here to impress you with jargon. It's here to give you the tools, mindset, and method to think like a hacker (ethically, of course), act like a tester, and help developers sleep at night. Inside, you'll meet essential tools like Burp Suite, MobSF, Frida, Objection, and a few obscure ones that'll soon become your favorites. We'll cover root detection bypass, SSL pinning evasion, API tampering, logic flaw exploitation, and more-all in a tone that feels more like a hacker hangout than a college lecture.
If you've ever looked at a mobile app and thought, "I wonder how secure this really is..." - this book is your answer.
And hey, if nothing else, you'll never trust a flashlight app again. You're welcome.
