Network Traffic Security Testing for Mobile and IoT Applications

Network Traffic Security Testing evaluates how an application or device handles data in transit, ensuring that communications remain confidential, authentic, and tamper-proof. Poorly secured network traffic can be intercepted, modified, or replayed—leading to data breaches, unauthorized access, and privilege escalation. 

 Tests Performed in Network Traffic Assessments

Sniffing
We simulate passive interception of network packets (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, MQTT, XMPP, etc.) to discover whether sensitive information—like credentials, session tokens, or PII—is transmitted in cleartext or weakly encrypted, making it easily retrievable by eavesdroppers.

Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) Attacks
This test injects a proxy between the client and server to manipulate or observe traffic. We verify proper SSL/TLS configuration, certificate pinning, and mutual authentication to prevent attackers from decrypting or tampering with data in flight.

Message Integrity
We assess whether cryptographic checks (e.g., HMAC, digital signatures) are correctly applied to every message. Ensuring message integrity prevents malicious modification of payloads, command injection, or unauthorized data alteration.

Replay Attacks
This test captures valid network messages and attempts to resend them later to trigger unintended actions. We verify nonce usage, timestamps, and sequence numbers to guarantee each request is fresh and cannot be replayed.

Insecure Usage of Protocols (e.g., MQTT, XMPP)
We analyze implementation of lightweight messaging protocols commonly used in mobile and IoT contexts. This includes checking for default credentials, unencrypted channels, and weak authentication mechanisms that could be exploited to hijack sessions or inject malicious commands.

Identity / Event / Data Spoofing
We attempt to forge source identities, events, or data payloads to impersonate legitimate devices or users. This test ensures robust authentication at the transport layer and proper validation of sender credentials.

Privilege Escalation via Network Channels
We look for flaws in network-based APIs and services that could allow an attacker to elevate privileges—such as invoking admin-only commands through crafted requests or exploiting misconfigured endpoints to gain unauthorized access.