Background. Web communication is universal in cyberspace, and security risks in this domain are devastating.
Aims. We analyzed the prevalence of six security smells in mobile app servers, and we investigated the consequence of these smells from a security perspective.
Method. We used an existing dataset that includes 9 714 distinct URLs used in 3 376 Android mobile apps. We exercised these URLs twice within 14 months and investigated the HTTP headers and bodies.
Results. We found that more than 69% of tested apps suffer from three kinds of security smells, and that unprotected communication and misconfigurations are very common in servers. Moreover, source-code and version leaks, or the lack of update policies expose app servers to security risks.
Conclusions. Poor app server maintenance greatly hampers security.
Tue 12 OctDisplayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change
15:30 - 16:35 | Testing & Security 2Technical Papers / Emerging Results and Vision papers at ESEM ROOM Chair(s): Davide Fucci Blekinge Institute of Technology | ||
15:30 15mTalk | Barriers to Shift-Left Security: The Unique Pain Points of Writing Automated Tests Involving Security Controls Technical Papers Danielle Gonzalez Rochester Institute of Technology and Microsoft, Paola Peralta Perez Rochester Institute of Technology, Mehdi Mirakhorli Rochester Institute of Technology DOI | ||
15:45 15mTalk | Security Smells Pervade Mobile App Servers Technical Papers Pascal Gadient University of Bern, Marc-Andrea Tarnutzer University of Bern, Oscar Nierstrasz University of Bern, Switzerland, Mohammad Ghafari University of Auckland Pre-print | ||
16:00 15mTalk | Who are Vulnerability Reporters? A Large-scale Empirical Study on FLOSS Technical Papers Nikolaos Alexopoulos Technical University of Darmstadt, Andy Meneely Rochester Institute of Technology, Dorian Arnouts Technical University of Darmstadt, Max Mühlhäuser Technical University of Darmstadt Pre-print | ||
16:15 10mTalk | Python Crypto Misuses in the Wild Emerging Results and Vision papers Anna-Katharina Wickert TU Darmstadt, Germany, Lars Baumgärtner TU Darmstadt, Florian Breitfelder TU Darmstadt, Mira Mezini TU Darmstadt, Germany Pre-print Media Attached | ||
16:25 10mTalk | Web Application Testing: Using Tree Kernels to Detect Near-duplicate States in Automated Model Inference Emerging Results and Vision papers Anna Corazza Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Sergio Di Martino Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Adriano Peron Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Luigi Libero Lucio Starace Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II Pre-print Media Attached | ||