What is default behaviour for an application when there is no network security config declared?
Would the system would reject user certificates in such case, or it depends on compiled API version of the app?
Would the system would reject user certificates in such case
Yes, if your targetSdkVersion
is 24 or higher. Quoting the documentation:
By default, apps that target Android 7.0 only trust system-provided certificates and no longer trust user-added Certificate Authorities (CA). Apps targeting Android 7.0 (API level 24) that wish to trust user-added CAs should use the Network Security Config to specify how user CAs should be trusted
If your targetSdkVersion
is 23 or lower, user certificates should still be honored, even without a network security configuration.