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I am just wondering if there are benefits from a security perspective to develop a mobile App either as native app or as a cross-platform UI app, in particular Rhodes? I need to develop an application and from security perspective i am wondering if i gain any additional security in going one way over the other.

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Can you be a little more specific? Which platform? What do you mean by cross-platform UI app? –  SteveS Feb 23 '11 at 2:34
Rhodes added as a cross-platform Native Framework –  Phoenician-Eagle Feb 23 '11 at 8:06
Just curious, what did you think [security-theater] means? I removed it... –  AviD Feb 23 '11 at 9:17
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up vote 6 down vote accepted

There are two main things to watch out for:

  • you will make fewer mistakes in the environment with which you're more accustomed. If you understand secure coding in, e.g. C# better than Objective-C, then Monotouch might be better for you than Cocoa Touch.

  • the combination "your code + operating system" has a smaller attack surface than "your code + third party library + operating system".

In almost all cases, the contribution from the first factor is far greater than that from the second.

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+1, very good in pointing out the conflicting considerations needed to make an intelligent tradeoff for him. But one question, are there no mobile frameworks that specifically add security features / secure APIs? –  AviD Feb 23 '11 at 19:30
@avid none I've ever come across. –  user185 Feb 24 '11 at 9:05
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