Mobile software security threats in the software ecosystem, a call to Arms

Abstract

This paper studies security policies of the Android and iOS software ecosystems. These platforms have experienced security issues since their public release in 2007. This research creates an overview of the results that security issues cause and the actions available to limit security infractions based on scientific literature. Following the overview, this paper attempts to explain premises of those issues by analyzing the security recommendations of both platforms and comparing them to OWASP security guidelines. This is done by comparing development guidelines set up by both platforms and assessing the importance of each of these guidelines in the ecosystem perspective. The conclusion highlights vulnerabilities in the developer guidelines of mobile platforms and recommends appropriate action to improve the situation.