January 13, 2014 - Many of the world's biggest banks have serious security flaws in their mobile apps which could leave customers - and the banks themselves - vulnerable to attackers, research from IOActive suggests.

IOActive researcher Ariel Sanchez used iPhones and iPads to test 40 home banking apps from some of the biggest financial institutions around the world.

The testing found that 90% of the apps contain non-SSL links, enabling any attacker to intercept traffic and inject code in an attempt to create a fake login prompt or similar scam.

Meanwhile, half of the apps are vulnerable to JavaScript injections via insecure UIWebView implementations. In some cases, the native iOS functionality is exposed, allowing crooks to do things like send SMS or e-mails from the victim's device.

Many apps - 40% - do not validate the authenticity of SSL certificates presented, leaving them open to man-in-the-middle attacks. Nearly three quarters also don't have multi-factor authentication, which could help to mitigate the risk of impersonation attacks.

IOActive says that it has contacted some of the banks about vulnerabilities but argues that the entire industry needs to step up its efforts to protect customers.

Among its suggestions are that all connections are performed using secure transfer protocols, SSL certificate checks are enforced, and the iOS data protection API is used to encrypt sensitive data.