Detect Hooking Frameworks

Last updated March 20, 2024 by Appdome

This Knowledge Base article describes how to use Appdome’s AI/ML in your CI/CD pipeline to continuously deliver plugins that Detect Hooking Frameworks in Android apps.

What are Hooking Frameworks?

Hooking frameworks are software tools or techniques that allow hackers to intercept and modify the behavior of Android applications or the operating system itself by inserting custom code or “hooks” into the code execution flow. These hooks can capture specific events or function calls, enabling hackers to monitor and alter the application’s functionality. While hooking frameworks have legitimate uses in debugging, testing, and performance monitoring, they can also be exploited for malicious purposes, posing significant security risks. When used maliciously, these frameworks can lead to unauthorized access, information theft, application tampering, and other potential threats, making them a concern in terms of Android security.

Why Should Detecting Hooking Frameworks be a Priority?

Detecting and defending against hooking frameworks is crucial to safeguard sensitive data, maintain application integrity, prevent unauthorized access, preserve user trust, and mitigate the spread of malware. By doing so, it contributes to creating a more secure and reliable Android environment, benefiting both developers and end users. Appdome employs multiple methods to detect and protect applications from Android Hooking Frameworks. This includes monitoring for any unauthorized changes made to the app’s binary function implementations and identifying malicious frameworks used within the app’s process’ memory. Through these proactive measures, Appdome ensures a robust defense against potential security threats posed by hooking frameworks in the Android ecosystem.

 

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's Detect Hooking Frameworks Plugins:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Detect Hooking Frameworks , you’ll need:

How to Implement Detect Hooking Frameworks in Android Apps Using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending Android Apps that Detect Hooking Frameworks without an SDK or gateway:

  1. Designate the Mobile App to be protected.

    1. Upload an app via the Appdome Mobile Defense platform GUI or via Appdome’s DEV-API or CI/CD Plugins.

    2. Android Formats: .apk or .aab
    3. Detect Hooking Frameworks is compatible with: Java, JS, C++, C#, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, Cordova and other Android apps.
  2. Select the defense: Detect Hooking Frameworks.

      1. Create and name the Fusion Set (security template) that will contain the Detect Hooking Frameworks feature as shown below:
        fusion set that contains Detect Hooking Frameworks .

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Detect Hooking Frameworks feature
        Note: Naming the Fusion Set to correspond to the protection(s) selected is for illustration purposes only (not required).

      2. Follow the steps in Sections 2.2-2.2.2 of this article to add the Detect Hooking Frameworks feature to your Fusion Set via the Appdome Console.

      3. When you select the Detect Hooking Frameworks you'll notice that the Fusion Set you created in step 2.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Detect Hooking Frameworks.

        Fusion Set applied Detect Hooking Frameworks

        Figure 2: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Detect Hooking Frameworks protection
        Note: Annotating the Fusion Set to identify the protection(s) selected is optional only (not mandatory).

      4. Open the Fusion Set Detail Summary by clicking the “...” symbol on the far-right corner of the Fusion Set. Copy the Fusion Set ID from the Fusion Set Detail Summary (as shown below): fusion Set Detail Summary image

        Figure 3: Fusion Set Detail Summary

      5. Follow the instructions below to use the Fusion Set ID inside any standard mobile DevOps or CI/CD toolkit like Bitrise, Jenkins, Travis, Team City, Circle CI or other system:
        1. Refer to the Appdome API Reference Guide for API building instructions.
        2. Look for sample APIs in Appdome’s GitHub Repository.
    1. Add the Detect Hooking Frameworks feature to your security template.

      1. Navigate to Build > Anti Fraud tab > Mobile Malware Prevention section in the Appdome Console.
      2. Toggle On > Detect Hooking Frameworks.

        (a) Choose to monitor this attack vector by checking the Threat Events checkbox associated with Detect Hooking Frameworks as shown below.

        (b) To receive mobile Threat Monitoring, check the ThreatScope™ box as shown below. For more details, see our knowledge base article on ThreatScope™ Mobile XDR.
        Detect Hooking Frameworks option

        Figure 4: Selecting Detect Hooking Frameworks

        Note: The Appdome Platform displays the Mobile Operation Systems supported by each defense in real-time. For more details, see our OS Support Policy KB.

      3. Select the Threat-Event™ in-app mobile Threat Defense and Intelligence policy for Detect Hooking Frameworks:
        1. Threat-Events™ OFF > In-App Defense

          If the Threat-Events™ setting is not selected. Appdome will detect and defend the user and app by enforcing Hooking Frameworks.

        2. Threat-Events™ ON > In-App Detection

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects Hooking Frameworks and passes Appdome’s Threat-Event™ attack intelligence to the app’s business logic for processing, enforcement, and user notification. For more information on consuming and using Appdome Threat-Events™ in the app, see section Using Threat-Events™ to Detect Hooking FrameworksDetect Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

        3. Threat-Events™ ON > In-App Defense

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects and defends against Hooking Frameworks (same as Appdome Enforce) and passes Appdome’s Threat-Event™ attack intelligence to the app’s business logic for processing. For more information on consuming and using Appdome Threat-Events™ in the app, see section Using Threat-Events™ for Detect Hooking FrameworksDetect Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

      4. Configure the User Experience Options for Detect Hooking Frameworks:
        With Threat-Events™ OFF, Appdome provides several user experience options for mobile brands and developers.
        1. App Compromise Notification: Customize the pop-up or toast Appdome uses to notify the user when a threat is present while using the protected mobile app.
        2. Short message Option. This is available for mobile devices that allow a banner notification for security events.
        3. Localized Message Option. Allows Appdome users to support global languages in security notifications.

          Localized Message

          Figure 5: Default User Experience Options for Appdome’s Hooking Frameworks

        4. Detect Hooking Frameworks Threat Code™. Appdome uses AI/ML to generate a unique code each time Detect Hooking Frameworks is triggered by an active threat on the mobile device. Use the code in Appdome Threat Resolution Center™ to help end users identify, find and resolve active threats on the personal mobile devices.
    2. Initiate the build command either by clicking Build My App at the bottom of the Build Workflow (shown in Figure 4) or via your CI/CD as described in Section 2.1.4.
    Congratulations!  The Detect Hooking Frameworks protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the Detect Hooking Frameworks feature in Android Apps

    After building Detect Hooking Frameworks, Appdome generates a Certified Secure™ certificate to guarantee that the Detect Hooking Frameworks protection has been added and is protecting the app. To verify that the Detect Hooking Frameworks protection has been added to the mobile app, locate the protection in the Certified Secure™ certificate as shown below: Detect Hooking Frameworks shown in Certificate secure

    Figure 6: Certified Secure™ certificate

    Each Certified Secure™ certificate provides DevOps and DevSecOps organizations the entire workflow summary, audit trail of each build, and proof of protection that Detect Hooking Frameworks has been added to each Android app. Certified Secure provides instant and in-line DevSecOps compliance certification that Detect Hooking Frameworks and other mobile app security features are in each build of the mobile app.

Using Threat-Events™ for Hooking Frameworks Intelligence and Control in Android Apps

Appdome Threat-Events™ provides consumable in-app mobile app attack intelligence and defense control when Hooking Frameworks are detected. To consume and use Threat-Events™ for Hooking Frameworks in Android Apps, use registerReceiver in the Application OnCreate, and the code samples for Threat-Events™ for Hooking Frameworks shown below.

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for Hooking Frameworks are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Detect Hooking Frameworks Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Detect Hooking Frameworks
Threat-Event Mode
OFF, IN-APP DEFENSE Appdome detects, defends and notifies user (standard OS dialog) using customizable messaging.
ON, IN-APP DETECTION Appdome detects the attack or threat and passes the event in a standard format to the app for processing (app chooses how and when to enforce).
ON, IN-APP DEFENSE Uses Appdome Enforce mode for any attack or threat and passes the event in a standard format to the app for processing (gather intel on attacks and threats without losing any protection).
Certified Secure™ Threat Event Check
Visible in ThreatScope™
Developer Parameters for Detecting Hooking Frameworks Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME HookFrameworkDetected
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF 6942
Threat-Event SCORE
currentThreatEventScore Current Threat-Event score
threatEventsScore Total Threat-events score
Threat-Event Context Keys
message Message displayed for the user on event
failSafeEnforce Timed enforcement against the identified threat
externalID The external ID of the event which can be listened via Threat Events
osVersion OS version of the current device
deviceModel Current device model
deviceManufacturer The manufacturer of the current device
fusedAppToken The task ID of the Appdome fusion of the currently running app
kernelInfo Info about the kernel: system name, node name, release, version and machine.
carrierPlmn PLMN of the device. Only available for Android devices.
deviceID Current device ID
reasonCode Reason code of the occurred event
buildDate Appdome fusion date of the current application
devicePlatform OS name of the current device
carrierName Carrier name of the current device. Only available for Android.
updatedOSVersion Is the OS version up to date
deviceBrand Brand of the device
deviceBoard Board of the device
buildUser Build user
buildHost Build host
sdkVersion Sdk version
timeZone Time zone
deviceFaceDown Is the device face down
locationLong Location longitude conditioned by location permission
locationLat Location latitude conditioned by location permission
locationState Location state conditioned by location permission
wifiSsid Wifi SSID
wifiSsidPermissionStatus Wifi SSID permission status
threatCode The last six characters of the threat code specify the OS, allowing the Threat Resolution Center to address the attack on the affected device.

With Threat-Events™ enabled (turned ON), Android developers can get detailed attack intelligence and granular defense control in Android applications and create amazing user experiences for all mobile end users when Hooking Frameworks are detected.


The following is a code sample for native Android apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Detect Hooking Frameworks:


Important! Replace all placeholder instances of <Context Key> with the specific name of your threat event context key across all language examples. This is crucial to ensure your code functions correctly with the intended event data. For example, The <Context Key> could be the message, externalID, OS Version, reason code, etc.



Using Appdome, there are no development or coding prerequisites to build secured Android Apps by using Detect Hooking Frameworks. There is no SDK and no library to code or implement in the app and no gateway to deploy in your network. All protections are built into each app and the resulting app is self-defending and self-protecting.

Releasing and Publishing Mobile Apps with Detect Hooking Frameworks

After successfully securing your app by using Appdome, there are several available options to complete your project, depending on your app lifecycle or workflow. These include:

Related Articles:

How Do I Learn More?

If you have any questions, please send them our way at support.appdome.com or via the chat window on the Appdome platform.

Thank you!

Thanks for visiting Appdome! Our mission is to secure every app on the planet by making mobile app security easy. We hope we’re living up to the mission with your project.

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