Mobile eXploitation Specialist

About this certification

MXS (Mobile eXploitation Specialist) is SixHack Academy’s certification to learn offensive mobile application security testing from scratch. The goal is for you to understand how an Android or iOS app works internally, learn to interpret how it communicates with APIs, and be able to identify common vulnerabilities, validate them with a reproducible proof, and document them professionally.

Throughout the certification we follow a practical and structured auditing workflow. First you will set up your lab and map the application, then identify inputs, flows, and sensitive areas, and from there build hypotheses and confirm them with clear evidence. This is key because many mobile apps depend on API calls, and a large part of the real risk comes from how the backend validates what the app requests.

Who is MXS for?

MXS is designed for people who want to start in mobile pentesting with no prior experience and reach a level where they can audit a complete app with solid judgement. It also fits very well if you come from web security and want to transfer your methodology to mobile, or if you are studying and want a strong foundation to begin auditing real applications. And if you come from mobile or backend development, it will help you understand why issues happen, how they are verified, and how they should be fixed with proper criteria.

What you will learn

We start with the fundamentals that are actually used when auditing a mobile application. You will learn how to build a testing environment with emulators or real devices, how to analyze traffic, and how to build a real API map from the app’s live calls.

Then we go into communications in a hands-on way. Routes, parameters, sessions, authentication, tokens, TLS, and the details that usually make the difference when something “looks weird” but you still don’t know where to dig. You will learn to spot access control patterns and test authorization methodically, because in mobile the most critical issues are very often on the API side.

You will work with manual auditing tools the way they are used in the real world, and we will complement them with static analysis and triage utilities such as jadx and MobSF to gain speed without losing control or rigor. You will also learn to think like an auditor: where to look first, how to prioritize, what signals actually matter, and how to avoid conclusions based on intuition when you don’t yet have proof.

Vulnerabilities you will learn to identify and validate

Throughout the certification you will learn to identify and validate common cases such as information exposure and insecure configurations, parameter and state manipulation, authentication issues, and business logic flaws. You will cover access control in depth, including IDOR and broken authorization scenarios, as well as systematic testing of sessions and tokens. You will also work on mobile-specific surfaces such as sensitive data exposure in local storage, deep links and universal links, WebViews, inter-component communication, and common risks derived from third-party SDKs. The objective is always to reach a reproducible proof with clear evidence.

How to turn technical work into a professional report

It’s not only about finding issues, but about explaining them. You will learn how to capture reproducible evidence with request and response, describe impact and risk clearly for both technical and non-technical audiences, and prioritize findings with realistic, verifiable recommendations.

What you’ll take away

You will finish with the ability to face a new application, understand it, map it, test it methodically, and document results as in a real audit. You will build the habit of working with organized evidence, reproducible steps, and defensible conclusions. And you’ll have a solid foundation to move into intermediate and advanced mobile security with judgement, not just by following checklists.

Ethical framework and responsible use

MXS is delivered for strictly educational purposes. The techniques taught must be applied only in labs, owned systems, or systems with explicit permission. The goal is to learn how to audit and improve security, not to cause harm or access information without authorization.