Application security is an important issue in Symbian OS, because native C++ applications have broad access to the mobile device functionality. For example, a native Symbian OS application can directly access network and mobile device interfaces, storage memory, messaging framework, etc. This makes many features available for application developers to use, but can be exploited in the wrong hands.
Symbian OS platform security was introduced in Symbian OS v9.1 (S60 3rd Edition). Unfortunately, prior to Symbian OS platform security, there was no easy way for an application server to determine if installed software using the server could be trusted, even when the software vendor was known.
This section covers the most critical components in Symbian OS — the components that first encounter problems and form the front line of defense when a system is attacked.
This section contains the following information about application security: