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An Overview of Reverse Engineering and A Security Analysis of TikTok

Sengelmann, Michael
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2452-8101
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613748245334672

Abstract Details

2020, MS, University of Cincinnati, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Science.
Social media platforms dominate the technological world. Because of this, it has become increasingly important that these platforms are not only trustworthy, but secure. One of the most recent social media platforms to surface is TikTok, which has grown in popularity at a record pace, making it one of the most used social media applications in 2020. Despite TikTok's popularity, it has received scrutiny from American lawmakers potentially posing threats to national security. These threats have prompted the United States government to consider banning TikTok. Other nations, such as India, have already implemented national bans for similar reasons. The national security concerns surrounding TikTok originate from the parent company's national ties to China, questionable third party relations to the parent company and questions surrounding the data collected by the application itself. Recently, many have come forward with their findings from reverse engineering the application to expose its actual functionality. These findings highlight the security concerns within the application, focusing on application permissions, the insecure cryptography mechanisms, and additional issues that pose threats to users' personal data. This paper outlines the process of reverse engineering, thereby detailing the security concerns surrounding TikTok, as well as provide a proof of concept (POC) application capable of demonstrating the potential security risks. Accomplished using entirely open-source tools, this project aims to spread awareness about the importance of information security on mobile devices.
John Franco, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
John Emmert, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Rashmi Jha, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
123 p.
Computer Science
Reverse Engineering; TikTok; Mobile Application; Cybersecurity; Android; Static Analysis

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Sengelmann, M. (2020). An Overview of Reverse Engineering and A Security Analysis of TikTok [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613748245334672

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sengelmann, Michael. An Overview of Reverse Engineering and A Security Analysis of TikTok. 2020. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613748245334672.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sengelmann, Michael. "An Overview of Reverse Engineering and A Security Analysis of TikTok." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1613748245334672

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1613748245334672
1,415
© 2020, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License An Overview of Reverse Engineering and A Security Analysis of TikTok by Michael Sengelmann is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.