An Investigation into Permissions Requested by Mobile Banking on Android Platform

Abstract

In the past, banking took place only inside bank rooms, which was a task for customers and bankers at the same time. But in our day, thanks to the high-speed development and growth of mobile technology, the mobile phone platform had the power to create great opportunities for customers of the physical bank due to its capabilities and coverage of the population; this can be proved by the number of mobile subscriptions that approximates the world population figures. In order to explore these opportunities, most banks have already launched their mobile apps or have redesigned the mobile version of their websites. Among the advantages of using mobile banking is that users have the ability to make banking transactions, online payments or transfers, anywhere and at any time. In this article, we investigated the danger of the permissions requested by mobile banking applications, their effects on sensitive user data and their relationship with the attack called “Man in the middle” and its different forms. We took Morocco as a case of study.