Secure coding technique: Let's talk about Tapjacking
Tapjacking, a combination of "tap" and "hijacking", means just that. It is an attack where the attacker hijacks the users taps and tricks him into doing something he did not intend. So how does it work and how do we prevent it?
Well start our story with screen overlays. Screen overlays or as Google calls them, windows using the type TYPE_APPLICATION_OVERLAY. These are windows that are drawn on top of other apps and usually only obscure a part of the screen. These are often used (like the example image below) when an app requests new permissions.
This is actually a cool and fun feature and more and more apps are starting to use it, think about Facebooks chat bubbles, or Google Maps navigation in a corner of your screen, like the screenshot below.
However, there are some security risks involved with these overlays. Any active screen overlay can listen for taps, how else would Facebook know that we tapped or dragged the bubble? This allows apps to spy on you and potentially steal passwords and credit card data.
One step further, and this is where the term tapjacking comes from, overlays can draw things on top of other apps tricking the user to perform different actions. The user thinks he is interacting with the overlay but in reality, his taps also perform actions in the underlying app. This way, the overlay can trick you into enabling certain permissions, or change some dangerous settings, as demonstrated in this old YouTube video.
The demonstration video above was uploaded to YouTube in 2010, so it was done on an older version of Android. But the attack is still relevant today, as vulnerabilities came to light that allows tapjacking in newer versions of Android such as Nougat and Marshmallow.
So what can you do about it? As a user, it is important to realize the consequences of these overlays and be aware of apps that use it. As of API level 23 (Android 6.0 Marshmallow), this has become a permission that has to be explicitly granted by the user. However, that leaves 50% of Androidusers still vulnerable. You can still check what apps make use of this permission in the settings under "Display over other apps".
As developers, it is up to us to make sure user actions are done with the full knowledge and consent of the user. Android provides a setting for your views that do just that, called filterTouchesWhenObscured. When it is enabled, the framework will discard touches that are received whenever the views window is obscured by another visible window. Its as simple as that, set filterTouchesWhenObscured to true, and your app is safe from tapjacking.
Good luck and see you next week!
Sometimes it is essential that an application be able to verify that an action is being performed with the full knowledge and consent of the user, such as granting a permission request, making a purchase or clicking on an advertisement. Unfortunately, a malicious application could try to spoof the user into performing these actions, unaware, by concealing the intended purpose of the view.
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html
Sometimes it is essential that an application be able to verify that an action is being performed with the full knowledge and consent of the user
Application Security Researcher - R&D Engineer - PhD Candidate
Secure Code Warrior is here for your organization to help you secure code across the entire software development lifecycle and create a culture in which cybersecurity is top of mind. Whether you’re an AppSec Manager, Developer, CISO, or anyone involved in security, we can help your organization reduce risks associated with insecure code.
Book a demo
Application Security Researcher - R&D Engineer - PhD Candidate
Tapjacking, a combination of "tap" and "hijacking", means just that. It is an attack where the attacker hijacks the users taps and tricks him into doing something he did not intend. So how does it work and how do we prevent it?
Well start our story with screen overlays. Screen overlays or as Google calls them, windows using the type TYPE_APPLICATION_OVERLAY. These are windows that are drawn on top of other apps and usually only obscure a part of the screen. These are often used (like the example image below) when an app requests new permissions.
This is actually a cool and fun feature and more and more apps are starting to use it, think about Facebooks chat bubbles, or Google Maps navigation in a corner of your screen, like the screenshot below.
However, there are some security risks involved with these overlays. Any active screen overlay can listen for taps, how else would Facebook know that we tapped or dragged the bubble? This allows apps to spy on you and potentially steal passwords and credit card data.
One step further, and this is where the term tapjacking comes from, overlays can draw things on top of other apps tricking the user to perform different actions. The user thinks he is interacting with the overlay but in reality, his taps also perform actions in the underlying app. This way, the overlay can trick you into enabling certain permissions, or change some dangerous settings, as demonstrated in this old YouTube video.
The demonstration video above was uploaded to YouTube in 2010, so it was done on an older version of Android. But the attack is still relevant today, as vulnerabilities came to light that allows tapjacking in newer versions of Android such as Nougat and Marshmallow.
So what can you do about it? As a user, it is important to realize the consequences of these overlays and be aware of apps that use it. As of API level 23 (Android 6.0 Marshmallow), this has become a permission that has to be explicitly granted by the user. However, that leaves 50% of Androidusers still vulnerable. You can still check what apps make use of this permission in the settings under "Display over other apps".
As developers, it is up to us to make sure user actions are done with the full knowledge and consent of the user. Android provides a setting for your views that do just that, called filterTouchesWhenObscured. When it is enabled, the framework will discard touches that are received whenever the views window is obscured by another visible window. Its as simple as that, set filterTouchesWhenObscured to true, and your app is safe from tapjacking.
Good luck and see you next week!
Sometimes it is essential that an application be able to verify that an action is being performed with the full knowledge and consent of the user, such as granting a permission request, making a purchase or clicking on an advertisement. Unfortunately, a malicious application could try to spoof the user into performing these actions, unaware, by concealing the intended purpose of the view.
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html
Tapjacking, a combination of "tap" and "hijacking", means just that. It is an attack where the attacker hijacks the users taps and tricks him into doing something he did not intend. So how does it work and how do we prevent it?
Well start our story with screen overlays. Screen overlays or as Google calls them, windows using the type TYPE_APPLICATION_OVERLAY. These are windows that are drawn on top of other apps and usually only obscure a part of the screen. These are often used (like the example image below) when an app requests new permissions.
This is actually a cool and fun feature and more and more apps are starting to use it, think about Facebooks chat bubbles, or Google Maps navigation in a corner of your screen, like the screenshot below.
However, there are some security risks involved with these overlays. Any active screen overlay can listen for taps, how else would Facebook know that we tapped or dragged the bubble? This allows apps to spy on you and potentially steal passwords and credit card data.
One step further, and this is where the term tapjacking comes from, overlays can draw things on top of other apps tricking the user to perform different actions. The user thinks he is interacting with the overlay but in reality, his taps also perform actions in the underlying app. This way, the overlay can trick you into enabling certain permissions, or change some dangerous settings, as demonstrated in this old YouTube video.
The demonstration video above was uploaded to YouTube in 2010, so it was done on an older version of Android. But the attack is still relevant today, as vulnerabilities came to light that allows tapjacking in newer versions of Android such as Nougat and Marshmallow.
So what can you do about it? As a user, it is important to realize the consequences of these overlays and be aware of apps that use it. As of API level 23 (Android 6.0 Marshmallow), this has become a permission that has to be explicitly granted by the user. However, that leaves 50% of Androidusers still vulnerable. You can still check what apps make use of this permission in the settings under "Display over other apps".
As developers, it is up to us to make sure user actions are done with the full knowledge and consent of the user. Android provides a setting for your views that do just that, called filterTouchesWhenObscured. When it is enabled, the framework will discard touches that are received whenever the views window is obscured by another visible window. Its as simple as that, set filterTouchesWhenObscured to true, and your app is safe from tapjacking.
Good luck and see you next week!
Sometimes it is essential that an application be able to verify that an action is being performed with the full knowledge and consent of the user, such as granting a permission request, making a purchase or clicking on an advertisement. Unfortunately, a malicious application could try to spoof the user into performing these actions, unaware, by concealing the intended purpose of the view.
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html
Click on the link below and download the PDF of this resource.
Secure Code Warrior is here for your organization to help you secure code across the entire software development lifecycle and create a culture in which cybersecurity is top of mind. Whether you’re an AppSec Manager, Developer, CISO, or anyone involved in security, we can help your organization reduce risks associated with insecure code.
View reportBook a demo
Application Security Researcher - R&D Engineer - PhD Candidate
Tapjacking, a combination of "tap" and "hijacking", means just that. It is an attack where the attacker hijacks the users taps and tricks him into doing something he did not intend. So how does it work and how do we prevent it?
Well start our story with screen overlays. Screen overlays or as Google calls them, windows using the type TYPE_APPLICATION_OVERLAY. These are windows that are drawn on top of other apps and usually only obscure a part of the screen. These are often used (like the example image below) when an app requests new permissions.
This is actually a cool and fun feature and more and more apps are starting to use it, think about Facebooks chat bubbles, or Google Maps navigation in a corner of your screen, like the screenshot below.
However, there are some security risks involved with these overlays. Any active screen overlay can listen for taps, how else would Facebook know that we tapped or dragged the bubble? This allows apps to spy on you and potentially steal passwords and credit card data.
One step further, and this is where the term tapjacking comes from, overlays can draw things on top of other apps tricking the user to perform different actions. The user thinks he is interacting with the overlay but in reality, his taps also perform actions in the underlying app. This way, the overlay can trick you into enabling certain permissions, or change some dangerous settings, as demonstrated in this old YouTube video.
The demonstration video above was uploaded to YouTube in 2010, so it was done on an older version of Android. But the attack is still relevant today, as vulnerabilities came to light that allows tapjacking in newer versions of Android such as Nougat and Marshmallow.
So what can you do about it? As a user, it is important to realize the consequences of these overlays and be aware of apps that use it. As of API level 23 (Android 6.0 Marshmallow), this has become a permission that has to be explicitly granted by the user. However, that leaves 50% of Androidusers still vulnerable. You can still check what apps make use of this permission in the settings under "Display over other apps".
As developers, it is up to us to make sure user actions are done with the full knowledge and consent of the user. Android provides a setting for your views that do just that, called filterTouchesWhenObscured. When it is enabled, the framework will discard touches that are received whenever the views window is obscured by another visible window. Its as simple as that, set filterTouchesWhenObscured to true, and your app is safe from tapjacking.
Good luck and see you next week!
Sometimes it is essential that an application be able to verify that an action is being performed with the full knowledge and consent of the user, such as granting a permission request, making a purchase or clicking on an advertisement. Unfortunately, a malicious application could try to spoof the user into performing these actions, unaware, by concealing the intended purpose of the view.
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html
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Application Security Researcher - R&D Engineer - PhD Candidate
Secure Code Warrior is here for your organization to help you secure code across the entire software development lifecycle and create a culture in which cybersecurity is top of mind. Whether you’re an AppSec Manager, Developer, CISO, or anyone involved in security, we can help your organization reduce risks associated with insecure code.
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Secure by Design: Defining Best Practices, Enabling Developers and Benchmarking Preventative Security Outcomes
In this research paper, Secure Code Warrior co-founders, Pieter Danhieux and Dr. Matias Madou, Ph.D., along with expert contributors, Chris Inglis, Former US National Cyber Director (now Strategic Advisor to Paladin Capital Group), and Devin Lynch, Senior Director, Paladin Global Institute, will reveal key findings from over twenty in-depth interviews with enterprise security leaders including CISOs, a VP of Application Security, and software security professionals.
Benchmarking Security Skills: Streamlining Secure-by-Design in the Enterprise
Finding meaningful data on the success of Secure-by-Design initiatives is notoriously difficult. CISOs are often challenged when attempting to prove the return on investment (ROI) and business value of security program activities at both the people and company levels. Not to mention, it’s particularly difficult for enterprises to gain insights into how their organizations are benchmarked against current industry standards. The President’s National Cybersecurity Strategy challenged stakeholders to “embrace security and resilience by design.” The key to making Secure-by-Design initiatives work is not only giving developers the skills to ensure secure code, but also assuring the regulators that those skills are in place. In this presentation, we share a myriad of qualitative and quantitative data, derived from multiple primary sources, including internal data points collected from over 250,000 developers, data-driven customer insights, and public studies. Leveraging this aggregation of data points, we aim to communicate a vision of the current state of Secure-by-Design initiatives across multiple verticals. The report details why this space is currently underutilized, the significant impact a successful upskilling program can have on cybersecurity risk mitigation, and the potential to eliminate categories of vulnerabilities from a codebase.
Secure code training topics & content
Our industry-leading content is always evolving to fit the ever changing software development landscape with your role in mind. Topics covering everything from AI to XQuery Injection, offered for a variety of roles from Architects and Engineers to Product Managers and QA. Get a sneak peak of what our content catalog has to offer by topic and role.
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Revealed: How the Cyber Industry Defines Secure by Design
In our latest white paper, our Co-Founders, Pieter Danhieux and Dr. Matias Madou, Ph.D., sat down with over twenty enterprise security leaders, including CISOs, AppSec leaders and security professionals, to figure out the key pieces of this puzzle and uncover the reality behind the Secure by Design movement. It’s a shared ambition across the security teams, but no shared playbook.
Is Vibe Coding Going to Turn Your Codebase Into a Frat Party?
Vibe coding is like a college frat party, and AI is the centerpiece of all the festivities, the keg. It’s a lot of fun to let loose, get creative, and see where your imagination can take you, but after a few keg stands, drinking (or, using AI) in moderation is undoubtedly the safer long-term solution.
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