Like any other mobile application, those built with React Native can be susceptible to a broad range of cyber threats, ranging from code injection attacks and data breaches to session hijacking and reverse engineering attacks. And since the number of mobile app attacks continues to increase, ensuring that your React Native app is secured against cyber threats is now more critical than ever.
Kaspersky Security Network alone blocked 10.71 million mobile software attacks in Q2 2025, and we can see other security solution providers indicating that attacks on mobile applications have recently surged. Running a systematic security review of your app is the best strategy to significantly minimize the chances of a successful attack, as it allows you to identify many potential vulnerabilities in advance and fix them promptly.
In this article, experts from Itransition, a company with an extensive track record in React Native development, provide a step-by-step guide for properly assessing React Native app security.
Preparing for the assessment
To begin, a team responsible for the assessment should gather and review general information about the application to gain a basic understanding of its components and how it operates. This includes collecting, systematizing, and reviewing documentation regarding the app’s architecture, technology stack, functionality, and third-party dependencies.
If there are available threat models or threat model reports for the app, reviewing them can also be useful to get a clearer understanding of the system’s current security posture and identify the most probable attack vectors, which can also be useful during the later assessment.
Furthermore, the preparatory phase involves setting up test environments for the React Native application to assess it in a controlled and isolated virtual setting. Teams can establish and configure them by using tools such as Jest and Detox, two open-source testing frameworks, which are designed to work with React Native-based applications.
Conducting static application security testing
Teams should start their assessments with static application security testing (SAST) that helps identify vulnerabilities in the application’s source code. This typically involves manual code reviews combined with automated checks with the help of specialized tools, such as SonarQube, Veracode, and Semgrep. While automation allows for quick and comprehensive analysis of entire codebases, manual inspection of lines of code allows for better identification of vulnerabilities in the app’s business logic, as humans can have a deeper understanding of its context.
SAST analysis can help security specialists effectively detect common vulnerabilities such as injection flaws, which enable hackers to execute SQL injection, LDAP injection, and other types of attacks to penetrate apps and steal data. Equally important, this type of testing enables teams to identify exposed hardcoded secrets, the lack of code obfuscation, and other issues that make code vulnerable to reverse engineering — a type of attack that involves the analysis of a React Native app’s inner workings.
Performing dynamic application security tests
The next step in assessing app security should be dynamic application security testing (DAST), the process of analyzing the app for vulnerabilities in its running state. This type of testing, which involves simulating attacks on the application, allows specialists to identify app vulnerabilities that can’t be undetected during static code reviews, including injection flaws, weak encryption, and insecure APIs. Appknox HCL, AppScan, and OWASP ZAP are some popular tools used to automate DAST for React Native apps.
Analyzing individual app components in detail
After the initial SAST and DAST checks, the team should conduct a more thorough evaluation of the React Native app’s individual components to identify additional weaknesses. Here are some critical components to be reviewed:
Authentication and session management
Among other things, the security team should check the operation of authentication and session management modules to detect exploitable weaknesses that could enable hackers to steal user session IDs or capture credentials communicated between the app and the server. Identifying these weaknesses is critical for preventing man-in-the-middle and session hijacking attacks.
Third-party modules
30% of respondents to the question about the worst React Native pain points cited the reliance on third-party modules, uncovered the State of React Native survey. Since a vulnerable module can easily become an entry point for hackers, analyzing all third-party modules during an app assessment is crucial for proactively identifying and mitigating the risks associated with app dependencies.
During this step, the team should review all documented third-party modules used in their React Native app to detect insecure coding patterns or configurations. To understand which third-party module components can be compromised, it is also recommended to evaluate the reputation of their vendors, frequency of security updates, and, if the modules are open-source, their source code.
Data encryption
The security team should also test the reliability of the app’s level encryption algorithms responsible for securing data captured or generated by the application. The team must ensure that the data encryption process works properly and without errors, that encryption keys are long enough to make data difficult to break, and that encryption algorithms are resistant to a variety of cryptanalytic attacks.
Beyond encryption itself, teams should also assess how sensitive data is discovered, classified, and monitored. Implementing data security posture management helps organizations understand where sensitive data resides and whether it is properly protected throughout the app lifecycle.
Documenting the findings
The last but not least important step involves documenting all vulnerabilities that were found during the assessment in a list and sorting them based on the significance of the risk they pose to the app’s health and security, which can be done with the help of Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) or any other suitable framework. After prioritizing vulnerabilities, the team can develop a tailored remediation plan to refine the React Native app’s security posture.
Final thoughts
Like any mobile solutions, apps built with Reach Native can be susceptible to numerous cyber threats, and given the rise of mobile software attacks, ensuring the security of your app is as vital as ever. Conducting a thorough security assessment enables your team to identify vulnerabilities within your app and address them before attackers can exploit them, which is vital for cyber threat prevention. Since the threat landscape constantly evolves, it is advisable to run such assessments at least annually and repeat them any time an app undergoes major architectural or codebase changes.
If you don’t have the necessary human resources or expertise to perform these assessments regularly, consider hiring React Native security professionals to provide the required services. These specialists can share their expertise to help your team identify weaknesses they could otherwise miss, which can lead to more efficient and accurate assessments, and if needed, provide a tailored remediation strategy based on their findings.
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