Security is one of the most crucial aspects of any online application development process. Without proper security, an application becomes vulnerable to external attack and data losses with ease. This vulnerability, in the end, might cost merchants the loss of precious information necessary for smooth business management and money as well. Also, fixing such security attacks can do a number on the merchant’s finances, because they’ll have to hire IOS developers and establish their whole application from scratch in such tragic scenarios.
Hence, when it comes to mobile application development, prevention is much better than cure. Strict adherence to security standards and best practices can easily aid merchants in avoiding such scenarios to a great extent. Also, handling the security layers beforehand aids merchants in focusing on the store’s functionality and using their budget in improvising their user’s experience. With this article, today we will talk about code obfuscation, one of the most widely used coding practices for improving security in IOS applications. But before we dive into that, let us take a look at the basic definition of Code obfuscation.
What is Code Obfuscation?
Code obfuscation is basically an act of transforming the source code into a form that is much harder for humans to read and understand. It is done for preventing any external attacks in the application. However, this does not affect the app functionality, and the code keeps working in the same way they are supposed to. Code obfuscation is a great way to encrypt the app code for making it secure from any unwanted external attacks.
This process can be done manually and automatically. Also at times, developers don’t encrypt the whole application code but instead just a part of it. The whole process of code obfuscation is a matter of personal preference, but it must be adapted in every app development process.
Methods of Code obfuscation
Code obfuscation could be done in a number of ways from renaming to control flow. During the development process, dedicated IOS app developers can either choose to adopt one of these or all of the methods according to their personal preference. However, adapting to code obfuscation method is a must for delivering high quality and secure IOS applications. Below is a list of top methods for Code obfuscation that can be easily adapted by developers to keep their apps secure.
Renaming: The process of renaming makes the name for variables and methods available in the app appear under a different name. This makes it harder for attackers to decode their purpose. As a result, this process can aid developers in preventing any external attacks without compromising their application’s functionality.
Control Flow: In control flow obfuscation the elements (iterative constructs, branching, etc) providing an executable logic are synthesized. This as a result makes the whole code logic look spaghetti-like, which is very difficult to decrypt.
Fake codes: By adding fake code that does not participate in app execution, developers can easily break the decompiling process generated by hackers and make their code harder to reverse engineer. This, as a result, can easily enhance the application’s security.
Metadata removal: By removing the metadata and comments from the executable files, developers can reduce the amount of information available in the codebase about the code. As a result, they can easily make it hard for attackers to see through the functionality of the application logic
Conclusion
Security is one of the most important aspects of the IOS application development process. And being lenient about security might be a very risky choice for developers and merchants. So, adapt to the code obfuscation methods mentioned above today for improving the security of IOS applications.
