Analyzing Security Vulnerabilities in Solo-Developed mHealth Applications: A Systematic Literature Review

In recent years, mobile health (mHealth) applications have become increasingly popular due to their ability to lower healthcare costs and improve patient awareness. However, the sensitive nature of healthcare data has raised concerns about the security of mHealth applications. Solo developers' lack of knowledge about security practices and poor security measures has resulted in numerous security vulnerabilities in mHealth applications. This review paper investigates the security vulnerabilities in mHealth applications that arise due to solo development by developers. The study examines a range of literature to identify common vulnerabilities initiated by solo developers in mHealth applications that can compromise secure mHealth application development. The paper has explored various security vulnerabilities that solo developers introduce to mHealth applications for them to fail to meet required security standards. The findings of the study outlined that solo developers of mHealth applications during development, introduce weak authentication mechanisms, fail to validate user input, use insecure communication mechanisms, use weak or no encryption of data, they also use unsecure APIs during the solo development of mHealth applications. These shortcomings finally result in weakening the server-side controls allowing unauthorised access to sensitive health data. The review paper's final recommendation is that solo developers should perform thorough security risk analyses throughout the application development process. It emphasizes the need for guidelines and other helpful tools to support solo developers in gaining security knowledge, which is crucial for addressing security vulnerabilities resulting from their limited understanding. Additionally, the study underscores the significance of prioritizing user privacy and security when creating mHealth applications.