SDK is "safe"?

Muhammad Ilyas — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 19:39:12 +0000

Have you read my previous article about "what is SDK?". If not, then first read out this article what is SDK? Here i briefly explain about what factor would be checked after integrating SDKs.

Now lets move to next read,

How do we know SDK we are implementing is safe and secure

Most of the time we have seen that malicious SDKs can violet user data privacy, damage app performance or even apps to be banned from Google Play Store or App Store.
SDKs can be unsafe because they are implanted within apps, but yet run separate code.
We must be sure before integrating and implementing SDKs that it not been infected by malware or leaking unapproved data to an external site.
SDKs should be transparent about what the data is capturing.
We have to implement licensed SDKs because they have diversified the product knowledge in their description.
Sometime we have adding those SDKs where they have no proper documentation, how to use SDK.
Some Third party SDKs capturing users data but not include it on documentation. Proper documentation would get benefit.
SDKs must be compliance from GDPR or CCPA.
Before the release of our app into the market we need to ensure the app undergoes scanning and there are no security issues.
If issues are identified then based on classification we may not be able to deploy.

Hope this will be helpful points that i share with you to understand. More articles related to this will coming soon...

What is SDK ?

Muhammad Ilyas — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 07:50:03 +0000

An SDK is a set of software tools and programs used to create apps for specific platforms or programming languages.

What's inside an SDK ?
SDKs include tools that developers can used and integrate into their own apps, such as:

Ready- made pieces of libraries
API's
Code Samples
Documentation
Process Workflow
Runtime/ development environment and guides. etc

Why should we use an SDK ?
Software Development Kits help add functionality to your apps. SDKs make building standard components of your app faster and easier. SDKs allow developers to build applications without writing every line of code from scratch.

SDKs are used for simple functions, Like Logging in, location services, mobile payment, inside analytics and more.

Thus, you would need an Android SDK toolkit to build an Android App. an IOS SDK to build an IOS App and use SDKs for backend as well.

Example of SDKs are:
Segment, firebase, analytics, braze, facebook and so on.

What factor would be checked ?
What are the factors, that would be checked after integrating SDKs.

Licensed: SDK should be licensed [for most of part].
Documentation: An SDK should include clear documentation of code and sample examples.
Uniformity: An SDKs features and methods should be uniform to work on cross platforms.
Use of Resource: SDK shouldn’t affect your app’s performance negatively, maximum functionality and minimum resource usage should be ideal.
Transparency: SDK should be transparent with what it is doing, what data capture on background and also with permissions.
Update: SDKs should be compatible with latest OS versions and architecture.
Security: SDKs must be safe from malware or leaked unsupported data.

DEV Community: Muhammad Ilyas

SDK is "safe"?

How do we know SDK we are implementing is safe and secure

What is SDK ?