Vulnerabilities of Mobile Applications Used in Distance Learning Environment

Abstract

E-Learning means learning through electronic resources. This is usually done on the Internet, where students can access materials online at any time. Nowadays, more and more students are enrolling in online courses to learn, due to the comfort of their homes and the desire to learn at their own pace, turning to various platforms that provide educational materials. Thus, mobile learning platforms, used in the university environment, bring benefits to students, although they cannot fully replace traditional education. The Internet presents many opportunities and beneficial ways of learning. In this material, we present the concept of distance education and how it is used. We present different software tools intended for mobile devices used in the education environment, and especially in the distance education process, and we analyze the vulnerabilities that have appeared for these mobile applications from the point of view of the data managed by these applications. The vulnerabilities are searched in CVE MITRE -Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures. For each mobile application, we centralize the vulnerabilities identified and we will create a statistical analysis using Common Vulnerability Scoring System -CVSS. In this way, we will create a ranking of the most vulnerable mobile applications used in distance learning. We believe that such an analysis is important for a growing technology because this technology development must be linked to certain security standards. Existing vulnerabilities already identified for the solutions used must be provided and analyzed so that there is no danger that these vulnerabilities are present in the solutions used.