Top Ten Attacks to Break Mobile Apps

To aid development in the mobile and smartphone app world, testers must do more than simply test against requirements; they should include attack-based testing to find common errors. In the tradition of James Whittaker’s How to Break Software books, Jon Hagar applies the testing “attack” concept to mobile app software, defines the domain of mobile app software, and examines common industry patterns of product failures. Jon then shares a set of ten software test attacks, based on the most common modes of failure in native, web-based, and hybrid apps. Developers and testers can use these attacks against their own software to find errors more efficiently. Jon describes why each attack works with its pros and cons. He provides information on how attacks can be used to cover many different quality attributes beyond testing only functionality.