Binary Protections
Binary protections are a collection of defensive techniques applied to compiled mobile application binaries to resist reverse engineering, tampering, debugging, and dynamic instrumentation by raising the cost and complexity of static and runtime analysis.
Once a mobile application is distributed through an app store, its compiled binary is available for anyone to download and analyse. Attackers use tools such as IDA Pro, Ghidra, Hopper, jadx, and Frida to decompile, disassemble, and instrument applications in order to bypass security controls, extract secrets, or create pirated versions. Binary protections aim to make these activities significantly more time-consuming and error-prone.
Anti-tampering checks verify the integrity of the application binary at runtime by computing checksums or digital signatures of critical code sections and comparing them to expected values. If modification is detected, the application can terminate, report the incident to a backend server, or degrade its functionality. Anti-debugging protections detect the presence of debuggers by checking process flags, timing execution paths, and monitoring for breakpoint instructions.
Additional protections include method swizzling detection on iOS, which identifies when Objective-C method implementations have been replaced at runtime; environment checks that detect emulators, simulators, and instrumentation frameworks; and native code encryption that decrypts code segments only when they are about to execute.
Binary protections are most effective when layered with code obfuscation, root detection, and certificate pinning. No single technique provides complete protection, but the combined cost of bypassing multiple defences can deter all but the most motivated and well-funded attackers. The OWASP MASVS resilience category provides a structured set of requirements for implementing these protections.