Mobile Security Framework (MobSF) is an open-source, automated, all-in-one framework for mobile application security testing across Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile that performs static and dynamic analysis for penetration testing, malware analysis, and privacy assessment, built for security researchers, penetration testers, and DevSecOps teams.

What it is

MobSF is a security research platform for mobile applications on Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile. It combines a Static Analyzer, which inspects popular mobile app binaries such as APK, IPA, and APPX as well as source code, with a Dynamic Analyzer that supports Android and iOS applications and provides a platform for interactive instrumented testing, runtime data collection, and network traffic analysis. The project is written for Python 3.12 and above, is licensed under GPL-3.0, and is published both as a PyPI package under the name mobsf and as a Docker image. The README describes it as capable of mobile application security assessment, penetration testing, malware analysis, and privacy analysis.

The concrete problem it solves is the fragmentation of mobile security testing. Rather than assembling separate tooling for each artifact type, a tester or pipeline submits an APK, IPA, APPX, or source tree to one platform and receives static findings and, for Android and iOS, dynamic runtime and network traffic results. It also replaces manual, one-off reviewing in continuous delivery settings: REST APIs and CLI tools let the same engine run as a step inside a DevSecOps or CI/CD pipeline instead of as a human-driven, ad-hoc task. The category listing places it in Developer Tools / API Development & Testing, and its topic list spans android-security, apk, cwe, devsecops, dynamic-analysis, ios-security, malware-analysis, mastg, masvs, and mobile-security.

Key capabilities

• Static Analyzer for APK, IPA, APPX, and source code, covering the main mobile binary formats.
• Dynamic Analyzer for Android and iOS applications, offering interactive instrumented testing, runtime data, and network traffic analysis.
• REST APIs and CLI tools that integrate with a DevSecOps or CI/CD pipeline.
• Mapping to the MASVS standard and the MASTG testing guide, reflected in the repository topics.
• CWE-based weakness reporting as part of the assessment output.
• Official Docker image opensecurity/mobile-security-framework-mobsf, runnable with docker run -it --rm -p 8000:8000 opensecurity/mobile-security-framework-mobsf:latest, with default credentials mobsf/mobsf.
• Distribution through Android Tamer, BlackArch, and Pentoo, and platform support for macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Who uses it and how

• Penetration testers assessing Android and iOS application builds who need static findings and instrumented runtime behavior from one interface.
• Malware analysts examining suspicious APK, IPA, or APPX samples, using the same platform for binary inspection and dynamic observation.
• DevSecOps and application security teams that call the REST APIs or CLI tools from a pipeline so mobile builds are scanned automatically.
• Security researchers and trainers, evidenced by appearances at Black Hat Arsenal Asia 2015 and 2018 and Black Hat Arsenal Europe 2023, plus a rank 5 placement in the ToolsWatch 2016 security tools vote and rank 9 in 2017.
• Analysts working from prebuilt security distributions, since MobSF ships inside Android Tamer, BlackArch, and Pentoo alongside its standalone Docker and Python installs.

Getting started

The README's quick setup pulls and runs the Docker image: docker pull opensecurity/mobile-security-framework-mobsf:latest, then docker run -it --rm -p 8000:8000 opensecurity/mobile-security-framework-mobsf:latest, with the default username and password mobsf/mobsf. A PyPI package named mobsf is also published for environments running Python 3.12 or newer, and full setup guidance lives in the MobSF documentation site.

How it compares

No comparable products are named in the supplied facts, so MobSF stands alone in this registry rather than being positioned against a specific set of alternatives. The only adjacent projects named are security distributions, Android Tamer, BlackArch, and Pentoo, which bundle MobSF rather than compete with it.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster must operate the Docker image or a Python 3.12+ installation, and the default mobsf/mobsf credentials shipped in the image should be replaced before any exposure, since anyone reaching port 8000 could otherwise use the instance. Dynamic analysis additionally depends on a working instrumented test setup, so teams that only want passive binary scanning carry more environment than they need, and organizations that cannot accept the GPL-3.0 licence or that require a vendor-managed service should look elsewhere. Note also that the registry metadata lists the language as JavaScript while the README and PyPI package describe a Python 3.12+ project, so metadata consumers should not treat the language field as authoritative.

docker pull opensecurity/mobile-security-framework-mobsf:latest
docker run -it --rm -p 8000:8000 opensecurity/mobile-security-framework-mobsf:latest

# Default username and password: mobsf/mobsf