Cyber Daily Report

None--securityboulevard.com
published date: 2026-01-13 00:00:00 UTC

None

For years, scraping was treated as a web problem.Security teams deployed WAFs, rate limits, CAPTCHAs, and IP reputation tools to protect websites from bots harvesting data. These methods provided a good safeguard for web apps.But the rise of AI-driven automation has fundamentally changed how scraping works. Increasingly, the focus of attack has shifted from web to mobile apps. If your business relies on proprietary data, real-time inventory, pricing, listings, or user-generated content, this shift matters more than you think. Scraping affects mobile apps differently than web applications. Mobile apps were designed for usability and performance, not hostile environments.As a result:<ul style="line-height: 1.75;"> <li>Mobile APIs often expose richer, more structured data </li> <li>Authentication is optimized for convenience, <a href="https://approov.io/blog/why-is-zero-trust-not-systematically-applied-to-mobile-app-security">not zero trust</a></li> <li>Android apps can be cloned, modified, and automated thanks to new tools</li> <li>Server-side systems can trust the app too much </li> </ul>For scrapers and AI agents, mobile APIs are a goldmine:<ul> <li style="line-height: 1.75;">Clean JSON responses</li> <li style="line-height: 1.75;">No HTML parsing</li> <li style="line-height: 1.75;">Predictable endpoints</li> <li style="line-height: 1.75;">Minimal friction</li> </ul><h2 style="font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.75;">How Mobile App Scraping Actually Works</h2>Modern scraping rarely interacts with your UI. Instead, attackers target your mobile API surface directly.<h3 style="font-size: 18px;">Example Attack Flow</h3><ol style="line-height: 1.75;"> <li>App Acquisition <ul> <li><a href="https://approov.io/blog/limitations-of-google-play-integrity-api-ex-safetynet">Attacker downloads the Android APK from Google Play </a>or a mirror</li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://approov.io/blog/how-to-extract-an-api-key-from-a-mobile-app-with-static-binary-analysis" style="color: #0f4b6a;">Reverse Engineering</a> <ul> <li>Tools like JADX, Frida, Ghidra, or APKTool extract: <ul> <li>API endpoints</li> <li>Headers</li> <li>Auth tokens</li> <li>Request formats</li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li>Runtime Instrumentation <ul> <li>App is run in: <ul> <li>Emulators</li> <li>Rooted devices</li> <li>Instrumented environments</li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="https://approov.io/knowledge/what-is-certificate-pinning">TLS pinning</a>, root detection, and obfuscation are bypassed</li> </ul> </li> <li>API Replay & Automation <ul> <li>Requests are replayed directly via scripts or AI agents</li> <li>Responses are harvested at scale</li> </ul> </li> </ol>At this point, the attacker no longer needs your app at all.<h2 style="font-size: 24px;">Why Android is Disproportionately Targeted</h2>Android is not “insecure”, but it is more permissive by design.Key factors:<ul style="line-height: 1.75;"> <li>APKs are easily extractable</li> <li>Runtime hooking is mature and widely available</li> <li>Emulators are first-class citizens</li> <li>Custom ROMs and rooted devices are common</li> <li><a href="https://approov.io/mobile-app-security/rasp/app-attestation/">App attestation</a> signals are often optional or unenforced</li> </ul>As a result, anything embedded in the app (keys, secrets, logic) can become compromised.<h2>Why API Keys, Tokens, and OAuth Don’t Stop Scraping</h2>A common misconception is that “authenticated APIs can’t be scraped.”In practice:<table style="border-collapse: collapse; table-layout: fixed; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: 1px solid #99acc2;"> <tbody> <tr> <td> Mechanism </td> <td> Why it fails </td> </tr> <tr> <td> API keys </td> <td> Extracted from the app binary </td> </tr> <tr> <td> OAuth tokens </td> <td> Harvested at runtime or replayed </td> </tr> <tr> <td> JWTs </td> <td> Valid tokens reused by automation </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Session cookies </td> <td> Mobile apps don’t rely on browser isolation </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Device IDs </td> <td> Spoofable or replayable </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><a href="https://approov.io/blog/is-api-authentication-secure" style="color: #0f4b6a;">Authentication proves </a><a href="https://approov.io/blog/is-api-authentication-secure" style="color: #0f4b6a;">who the user is</a>, not what is making the request. Scrapers impersonate legitimate sessions.<h2 style="font-size: 24px;">Why Server-Side Bot Detection Is Insufficient</h2>Server-side bot mitigation relies on behavioral inference:<ul style="line-height: 1.75;"> <li>Traffic patterns</li> <li>IP reputation</li> <li>Rate anomalies</li> </ul>AI-driven scraping breaks these assumptions:<ul style="line-height: 1.75;"> <li>Traffic is slow, distributed, and human-like</li> <li>Residential and mobile IPs are used</li> <li>Requests perfectly match real app behavior</li> </ul>From the server’s perspective:The request looks legitimate, because it is legitimate.Just not from a real app.<h2>The Core Security Problem: No App Authenticity Signal</h2>The fundamental gap is this:The backend has no cryptographically strong proof that a request came from an untampered app instance.Without that proof:<ul style="line-height: 1.75;"> <li>Any client that can mimic requests is trusted</li> <li>“Bad” traffic is indistinguishable from “good” traffic</li> <li>Detection becomes probabilistic and reactive</li> </ul>This is why scraping takes place even in highly mature security environments.<h2>What Actually Stops Mobile API Scraping</h2>Effective protection requires shifting trust, beyond the app itself. This is where <a href="https://approov.io/knowledge/what-is-the-difference-between-device-attestation-and-app-attestation" style="color: #0f4b6a;">cloud based security solutions and app attestation comes in</a>.<h3 style="font-size: 18px;">Required technical properties</h3>A viable solution must:<ol> <li style="line-height: 1.75;">Verify app integrity at runtime</li> <li style="line-height: 1.75;">Detect tampering, instrumentation, and cloning</li> <li style="line-height: 1.75;">Produce a cryptographic attestation per session</li> <li style="line-height: 1.75;">Be validated server-side before serving data</li> <li style="line-height: 1.75;">Fail closed (no attestation = no data)</li> </ol>This moves scraping prevention from:“Detect bad behavior” to “Deny access by default.”<h2 style="font-size: 24px;">Zero Trust for Mobile APIs</h2>In a <a href="https://approov.io/knowledge/the-role-of-approov-in-zero-trust" style="color: #0f4b6a;">zero-trust mobile model</a>:<ul style="line-height: 1.75;"> <li>The app is not trusted by default</li> <li>Every API call is gated on proof of app authenticity</li> <li>Trust is continuously re-evaluated, not assumed</li> </ul>This aligns mobile security with how modern infrastructure already treats:<ul style="line-height: 1.75;"> <li>Microservices</li> <li>Internal APIs</li> <li>Cloud workloads</li> </ul><h2 style="font-size: 24px;">Why This Matters More in the Age of AI</h2>AI agents amplify scraping risk by:<ul style="line-height: 1.75;"> <li>Generating API clients dynamically</li> <li>Adapting to defenses in near real time</li> <li>Scaling cheaply across regions and devices</li> </ul>Once data is scraped for AI training:<ul style="line-height: 1.75;"> <li>Ownership is effectively lost</li> <li>Competitive advantage erodes permanently</li> <li>Legal recourse is slow and uncertain</li> </ul>Preventing access is now far more effective than attempting enforcement after the fact.<h2 style="font-size: 24px;">Key Takeaway for App Builders</h2>If your app:<ul style="line-height: 1.75;"> <li>Exposes proprietary data, inventory, or pricing</li> <li>Relies on mobile APIs</li> <li>Assumes authenticated = trusted</li> </ul>Then scraping is a structural risk, not an edge case.Consider binding API access to verified, untampered app instances to improve your app integrity. <img decoding="async" src="https://track.hubspot.com/__ptq.gif?a=2449407&k=14&r=https%3A%2F%2Fapproov.io%2Fblog%2Fai-scraping-in-mobile-apps-how-it-works-and-how-to-stop-it&bu=https%253A%252F%252Fapproov.io%252Fblog&bvt=rss" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-top:0!important;margin-bottom:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-top:0!important;padding-bottom:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; "><div class="spu-placeholder" style="display:none"></div><div class="addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content addtoany_content_bottom"><div class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_20 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://securityboulevard.com/2026/01/ai-scraping-in-mobile-apps-how-it-works-and-how-to-stop-it/" data-a2a-title="AI Scraping in Mobile Apps: How It Works and How to Stop It"><a class="a2a_button_twitter" href="https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/twitter?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsecurityboulevard.com%2F2026%2F01%2Fai-scraping-in-mobile-apps-how-it-works-and-how-to-stop-it%2F&linkname=AI%20Scraping%20in%20Mobile%20Apps%3A%20How%20It%20Works%20and%20How%20to%20Stop%20It" title="Twitter" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin" href="https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/linkedin?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsecurityboulevard.com%2F2026%2F01%2Fai-scraping-in-mobile-apps-how-it-works-and-how-to-stop-it%2F&linkname=AI%20Scraping%20in%20Mobile%20Apps%3A%20How%20It%20Works%20and%20How%20to%20Stop%20It" title="LinkedIn" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook" href="https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/facebook?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsecurityboulevard.com%2F2026%2F01%2Fai-scraping-in-mobile-apps-how-it-works-and-how-to-stop-it%2F&linkname=AI%20Scraping%20in%20Mobile%20Apps%3A%20How%20It%20Works%20and%20How%20to%20Stop%20It" title="Facebook" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit" href="https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/reddit?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsecurityboulevard.com%2F2026%2F01%2Fai-scraping-in-mobile-apps-how-it-works-and-how-to-stop-it%2F&linkname=AI%20Scraping%20in%20Mobile%20Apps%3A%20How%20It%20Works%20and%20How%20to%20Stop%20It" title="Reddit" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><a class="a2a_button_email" href="https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/email?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsecurityboulevard.com%2F2026%2F01%2Fai-scraping-in-mobile-apps-how-it-works-and-how-to-stop-it%2F&linkname=AI%20Scraping%20in%20Mobile%20Apps%3A%20How%20It%20Works%20and%20How%20to%20Stop%20It" title="Email" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share_save addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share"></a></div></div>*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from <a href="https://approov.io/blog">Approov Blog</a> authored by <a href="https://securityboulevard.com/author/0/" title="Read other posts by Natalie Novick">Natalie Novick</a>. Read the original post at: <a href="https://approov.io/blog/ai-scraping-in-mobile-apps-how-it-works-and-how-to-stop-it">https://approov.io/blog/ai-scraping-in-mobile-apps-how-it-works-and-how-to-stop-it</a>