Certificate Pinning Alone Won’t Stop Modern MITM Attacks

#android #cybersecurity #mobilesecurity #backend

Certificate pinning is often seen as the ultimate defense against Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks in mobile apps.

The reality? It only protects one layer — TLS identity.

Modern attackers don’t just sit on the network anymore. They operate:

Inside the device using runtime hooking tools
Inside the app process on rooted or repackaged builds
At the token and session layer on the backend

So even if TLS is perfectly pinned, attackers may still:
🔹 Steal and replay tokens

🔹 Bypass certificate checks via instrumentation

🔹 Exploit weak backend authorization

Real protection comes from defense in depth:
✅ Strong token architecture

✅ Device & app integrity signals

✅ Step-up authentication for sensitive actions

✅ Backend anomaly detection

Certificate pinning is a tool — not a complete strategy.

👉 I break this down in detail (with Android + backend examples) in the full article:

https://medium.com/@vaibhav.shakya786/why-certificate-pinning-alone-wont-stop-modern-mitm-attacks-469e1d182bea