Mobile Application Security Testing (MAST): Methods, Tools and Best Practices
Harness, Monday, October 26th, 2026
Harness explains mobile application security testing, covering methods, common iOS and Android risks and criteria for choosing tools.
Harness defines mobile application security testing (MAST) as finding and fixing flaws in app code, bundled SDKs and runtime behavior before release.
Because a released app is a binary anyone can download and decompile, hardcoded secrets are effectively public.
The article covers static analysis, software composition analysis and dynamic testing, with OWASP MASVS and MASTG as reference standards and the OWASP Mobile Top 10 as the risk catalog.
It recommends running checks continuously in the CI/CD pipeline rather than relying on a single pre-launch pentest, and offers five criteria for evaluating tools, including pipeline-native operation.