MobSF, short for Mobile Security Framework, is a platform for assessing the security of mobile apps. It inspects an Android, iOS or Windows app and produces a report covering its permissions, likely weaknesses, poorly protected secrets and network activity. The software is free and open source under the GPL v3, built by a small team that includes Ajin Abraham, Magaofei, Matan Dobrushin and Vincent Nadal. Its GitHub repository showed more than 21,000 stars on the day we checked.
Version 4.5.3 reached PyPI on September 21, 2026, a few weeks after 4.5.2. The project ships several updates a year, adding detection rules and keeping up with changes in the Android build tools.
What MobSF is for
MobSF brings two approaches together. Static analysis works on the file without running it: an APK for Android, an IPA for iOS, an APPX for Windows, or the source code itself. The tool decompiles the app, reads its manifest, checks its certificates, identifies bundled libraries and searches the code for familiar mistakes such as data stored in plain text, disabled network protections or hardcoded access keys. Version 4.5.2, for instance, added detection of GitHub, Slack, Stripe or OpenAI tokens left behind in string resources. Results are presented in a web interface served from the local machine.
Dynamic analysis watches the app while it runs. MobSF launches it in an Android emulator, a Genymotion virtual machine, a Corellium virtual device or a jailbroken iPhone, then records its behavior: files written, data handled and network traffic. To instrument the app from the inside it relies on Frida, which also has a page in our software directory. The reviewer sees what the app actually does, not just what its code suggests.
That automation is what earns MobSF its place. A reviewer could chain a decompiler, Frida and a proxy such as Burp Suite Professional by hand. MobSF bundles those steps and quickly delivers a first map of the app, which an expert then digs into with specialized tools. A REST API and a command line utility let it slot into a continuous integration pipeline, and the project also publishes mobsfscan, a lighter code scanner meant for those pipelines. Malware analysts use it as well, to see at a glance what a suspicious app asks for and which servers it talks to.
Who is it for?
MobSF targets security reviewers who assess mobile apps, DevSecOps teams who want an automatic check on every new build, developers who want to vet their own app before release and analysts who study malicious apps. Its detailed reports also make it a good teaching aid for mobile security courses.
Its limits are worth knowing. An automated report includes false positives and does not replace an expert eye. iOS app analysis only works on macOS, on Linux or inside a Docker container, and Windows app analysis needs a Windows host or virtual machine. Dynamic analysis asks even more: the documentation caps it at Android 11 on emulators and Genymotion, requires a rooted system, and for iOS calls for a jailbroken device or a Corellium instance, a commercial platform unrelated to the project. Installing from source requires Python 3.12, OpenJDK 21 and several system packages, which is why many people choose the Docker image instead.
Download MobSF safely
The source code lives in the MobSF/Mobile-Security-Framework-MobSF repository on GitHub, and the official documentation at mobsf.github.io. There are two ways to install it: the setup scripts provided for Windows, macOS and Linux, or the opensecurity/mobile-security-framework-mobsf Docker image, which weighs about 940 MB according to Docker Hub. The package is also published on PyPI under the name mobsf. The software is free with every feature included. The team separately sells enterprise support packages and online courses through OpSecX, and offers limited free help on Slack.
People feed MobSF apps that are sometimes confidential and sometimes malicious. An image pushed by an unknown account or a modified archive could siphon those files off or compromise the review machine. The opensecurity account on Docker Hub, the MobSF organization on GitHub and the mobsf package on PyPI are the only sources to rely on.
Frequently asked questions
Is MobSF free?
Yes. MobSF is released under the GPL v3 and no feature is locked behind a paid edition. Only the enterprise support and the training courses offered by the team cost money, and both are optional.
Can I analyze an iOS app without a Mac?
Yes for static analysis, which works on Linux or inside the Docker container. It is not available on Windows without Docker. Dynamic analysis also needs a jailbroken iPhone or a Corellium instance.
How is MobSF related to Frida?
MobSF uses Frida to instrument apps during dynamic analysis, on Android 5 to 11 and on Corellium iOS devices. Frida can also be used on its own when a reviewer wants to write custom scripts and go further than the automated report.
