Mobile game security checklist built on the OWASP MASVS

The OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard groups mobile security into eight areas: storage, crypto, auth, network, platform, code, resilience and privacy. You can turn each into a short checklist for a mobile game. Do the first seven before spending effort on tamper resistance, because resilience raises attacker cost but does not fix design problems.

Storage

Games cache plenty: sessions, saves, purchase state, downloaded assets. Ask what sensitive data lands on the device and whether it needs to. Keep tokens in platform protected storage, keep secrets out of logs and avoid putting anything valuable in backups you do not intend. Do not store authority over currency or entitlements locally.

Crypto

Use platform provided cryptography and well established algorithms. Do not invent your own scheme for protecting saves or traffic, and do not hardcode keys in the app. A key that ships in every install is not a secret.

Auth

Authentication and authorization decisions belong on the server. MASVS covers local and remote authentication, session termination and step up authentication. For games, that means sessions that end properly, re checks before sensitive actions like changing payout details, and no trust in a client claim that the player is logged in.

Network

Encrypt all traffic in transit, validate certificates, and consider pinning for high value endpoints. Test what happens on hostile Wi-Fi. Assume the player can run a proxy on their own device and read your API calls, because they can.

Platform

This group covers how your app interacts with the operating system and other components: deep links, web views, inter process communication, the clipboard, screenshots and overlays. Common game risks include deep links that trigger actions without confirmation and web views that load third party content with too much trust.

Code

MASVS covers build practices, platform versions, updates, third party dependencies, input handling and deserialization. For games, this is where outdated engines, ad and analytics SDKs and native libraries matter. Keep a list of every third party component and update it on a schedule. Treat downloaded asset bundles and save files as untrusted input to your parsers.

Resilience

This group covers defenses against reverse engineering and tampering: root or jailbreak detection, obfuscation, integrity checks and debugger detection. They can slow cheaters and copycats. They cannot make a client trustworthy. Add them last, and expect them to be bypassed over time.

Privacy

MASVS includes permission management, data minimization, tracking, privacy policies and consent. Request only the permissions the game needs, explain them in context, and check what your SDKs collect. If young players are in scope, see the COPPA and GDPR posts in this series.

How to run the review

1. Take one MASVS group per sprint day and list findings.
2. Rank by what a player or attacker could gain: money, accounts, personal data.
3. Fix server side authority issues first.
4. Add resilience controls where cheating costs you real revenue.
5. Repeat each major release.

Safeguard's mobile surfaces include the iOS and Android apps, but for your own game it helps through SBOM and dependency scanning of the libraries you ship. Free scan: https://gold.safeguard.sh/scan.

Quick check

Sources

• OWASP MASVS

Last reviewed: 19 October 2026.