My name is Naz Markuta and I work in cyber security. This website serves as a personal blog where I share my experiences and occasional guides in various topics (mostly in IT). I’ve tried to keep this blog clean and purely content focused.
Comparing root detection on banking apps with latest version of Magisk
In this post I will be comparing root detection features on 24 UK mobile banking apps using the latest version of Magisk (v24.3) on a Google Pixel 3a. You can head straight to the comparisons table if you want to see the results. Test Device The device used was a Google Pixel 3a running Android 10. It had been rooted using the latest version of Magisk which was v24.3 (at the time of writing)....
Reverse VIN lookup by part numbers
Back story As part of an out-of-country car repair, my partner’s dad suspected that his transmission had been switched out for a faulty one without his permission. He noticed that after a second trip to a different mechanic, the car was not performing as expected so he asked me to help find out when his part was changed. The vehicle was a Hyundai Santa Fe 2008 bought in Bulgaria. It had a VIN of KMHSH81WP8U272568, with a transmission number of U7LFP467454....
Pod Point exposes customer data
This post will describe how I discovered a security flaw in Pod Point’s mobile app API endpoints. It covers bypassing certificate pinning with Frida, and demonstrate how attackers can steal full names, addresses, charging history, and more by simply having a registered account that anyone can obtain. Pod Point Pod Point is a UK based company established in 2009 that provides electric vehicle charging equipment to both businesses and individuals. It also operates what’s called the “Pod Point Network” where customers can use charge points across the country with a mobile app....
pfSense and IPv6 on HyperOptic
I recently decided to improve my home network by purchasing a pfSense box. I wanted to ditch my ISP issued router, a Tilgin HG2381 router which works well for simple networks but fails to offer advanced configuration options, like support for wireguard VPN or VLANs. HyperOptic HyperOptic is a UK broadband provider which supports both IPv4 and IPv6 address assignment. For IPv4 addresses they use Carrier-grade NAT (CGN) which doesn’t allow exposing a service using port forwarding....
Frida and MagiskHide
UPDATE (20-Mar-2022): MagiskHide has been dropped from Magisk 24.3. Checkout my blog post on comparing root detection for 24 banking apps where I also use Frida to spawn apps. For mobile app analysis, using a rooted device with Magisk and Frida has become my bread and butter. I’m aware that emulators exist (which I also use) but solutions, such as Android Studio or Genymotion fail to offer the same level of performance as a physical device....