Ethical Hacking Essentials Practice Test

What mobile risk is demonstrated when analyzing a mobile application’s binary to determine its source code?

1. Code injection

2. Reverse engineering

3. Phishing

4. Session hijacking

The correct answer is: Reverse engineering

When analyzing a mobile application's binary to determine its source code, reverse engineering is the correct term that describes this process. Reverse engineering involves deconstructing a compiled application to gain insights into its functionality, behavior, and underlying code. This can reveal vulnerabilities or methods of exploitation that could be used by malicious actors. Reverse engineering can be a significant risk in mobile security because it allows attackers to discover sensitive information such as encryption keys, API endpoints, and potential backdoors. This knowledge can lead to a variety of attacks, including the creation of malicious clones of the app or the exploitation of vulnerabilities found within the app's code. The other choices, while relevant in the context of mobile security, do not accurately describe the act of analyzing a binary to determine source code. Code injection refers to injecting malicious code into a program during its execution, phishing involves tricking users into providing sensitive information, and session hijacking is the unauthorized takeover of a user's session. None of these actions directly pertain to the process of reverse engineering a mobile application's binary.