Most developers choose to use React Native for their mobile platforms. They are likely to frown upon a single code base for a couple of platforms leading to an increase in development platforms. Now, what is going to be the case with application security? Some experts claim that react Native security may be less secure.
Would you be trusting React Native?
Formulated by Facebook react native is a third-party framework. When you are making apps for IOS or Android platforms, a developer would be trusting the functionality system that is provided by both the platforms, the hardware, and the libraries. If you are adding react native framework it means that you are adding another party that needs to be trusted as well.
Single point of failure or trust
When a lot of applications would be having the same component. Such components have a higher chance of being targeted by a user. It is not a guarantee that the third-party updates would align with native functional updates. It may lead to a series of bugs including security issues. Just imagine what a regular IOS update would bring about a change in the JavaScript Engine as there is bound to be a breakdown in the channels of communication. For all these reasons the app may end up becoming non – functional.
Now what would be requirements when you are looking to develop a secure network react-native security React App
- Placing trust with a react native framework- a mobile developer needs to trust Google and Apple by default. A react Native requires trusting Facebook as well.
- Security expertise would be there on the platform- if you are implementing security control it would mean that you would require profound knowledge on every platform, Android, IOS, or React Native. A point to consider is that the react-native team needs to possess qualified engineers that are having expertise in security controls. Even you may hire an external team who possess expertise in mobile application security
- Figuring out the vulnerabilities with react native specifics- a react native module goes on to introduce three vectors that should be mitigated. Appselling is a module that would be of help at this juncture. You need to invest time into a proper risk management exercise uprising a risk and a threat module. It is based on the things that you have gone on to learn that is going to help you visualize the threat landscape as the process of decision-making becomes simple.
- Acceptance of timing risks- since a react native app would be dependent upon a react native platform and would be having a series of dependencies. Updating them would not be as easy as updating the native apps. It is going to include security apps. Regular Maintainance and updates need to be part of your overall strategy.
To sum up things there is a process to update, selecting and replacing the dependencies. You may resort to the use of automated dependency analyzers.