OWASP MASVS
The OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS) is an open framework that defines a comprehensive set of security requirements for mobile applications, organised into categories covering architecture, data storage, cryptography, authentication, network communication, platform interaction, code quality, and resilience.
MASVS provides a baseline of security controls that mobile applications should meet, regardless of whether they are built natively, as hybrids, or with cross-platform frameworks. The standard is maintained by the OWASP Mobile Application Security project and is regularly updated to address emerging threats in the mobile ecosystem.
The framework organises requirements into groups such as MASVS-STORAGE for data protection at rest, MASVS-CRYPTO for cryptographic practices, MASVS-AUTH for authentication and session management, MASVS-NETWORK for transport security, MASVS-PLATFORM for secure platform API usage, MASVS-CODE for code quality and build settings, and MASVS-RESILIENCE for anti-tampering and reverse-engineering defences.
Organisations typically use MASVS as the requirements catalogue and pair it with the OWASP Mobile Application Security Testing Guide (MASTG), which provides detailed test cases and tooling instructions for verifying each requirement. Together they form a complete methodology for mobile application security assessments.
MASVS is widely adopted in regulated industries such as finance and healthcare, where auditors and penetration testers reference it as an authoritative benchmark. Integrating MASVS requirements into the software development lifecycle from the design phase reduces the cost of remediation compared to addressing findings only during final penetration tests.