Prevent Accessibility Service Malware on Android Apps

Last updated March 4, 2024 by Appdome

Learn to Prevent Accessibility Service Malware in Android apps, in mobile CI/CD with a Data-Driven DevSecOps™ build system.

What is Accessibility Service Malware?

Accessibility Service Malware is a program that uses Android Accessibility Services to perform malicious activities.

AccessibilityServices are OS settings/features in Android, such as screen readers and touch events, which are designed to help users with disabilities. These features run in the background and receive callbacks from the system when accessibility events are fired, allowing them to respond to a state transition in the UI (for example: focus has changed, a button has been clicked, or content in the active window has been queried).

Accessibility Service Malware suites take advantage of these permissions; for example, when an unsuspecting user enters his or her credentials into a banking app, the malware uses the keylogging feature to record those credentials. Once the malware has the credentials it can proceed to perform financial transactions that are only allowed with the recipient’s identifier such as an email address or a phone number. For these reasons, you are strongly recommended to prevent any use of the Accessibility Services by a malicious app and to protect the target application (your app) from being hijacked or compromised.

How does Appdome Prevent an Accessibility Service Malware Attack?

Appdome’s Prevent Accessibility Service Malware feature provides a comprehensive set of protections and tools for defending against various attacks while minimizing the impact on your ongoing operation.

This feature caters to the needs of organizations with mixed environments, by protecting against various types of malware suites, which attack older and current versions of Android.

Enabling Appdome’s Prevent Accessibility Service Malware feature automatically enables blocking banking malware apps (ATS malware) detecting Cloak & Dagger attacks. In addition, you can detect the use of permissions typically accessed by malware on Android 8 and earlier versions. All this while compiling a whitelist of trusted accessibility services, whose use will not be monitored and will not trigger alarms and events.

Note: The ‘Prevent Accessibility Service Malware’ and ‘Prevent Auto-Clickers’ features cannot be enabled simultaneously on the platform.

Prerequisites for Using Prevent Accessibility Service Malware:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Prevent Accessibility Service Malware , you’ll need:

Prevent Accessibility Service Malware on Android apps using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending Android Apps that Prevent Accessibility Service Malware without an SDK or gateway:

  1. Upload the Mobile App to Appdome.

    1. Upload an app to Appdome’s Mobile App Security Build System

    2. Upload Method: Appdome Console or DEV-API
    3. Android Formats: .apk or .aab
    4. Prevent Accessibility Service Malware Compatible With: Java, JS, C++, C#, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, Cordova and other Android apps
  2. Build the feature: Prevent Accessibility Service Malware.

    1. Building Prevent Accessibility Service Malware by using Appdome’s DEV-API:

      1. Create and name the Fusion Set (security template) that will contain the Prevent Accessibility Service Malware feature as shown below:
      2. fusion set that contains Prevent Accessibility Service Malware

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Prevent Accessibility Service Malware feature
        Note: Naming the Fusion Set to correspond to the protection(s) selected is for illustration purposes only (not required).

      3. Follow the steps in Sections 2.2.1-2.2.2 of this article, Building the Prevent Accessibility Service Malware feature via Appdome Console, to add the Prevent Accessibility Service Malware feature to this Fusion Set.

      4. Open the Fusion Set Detail Summary by clicking the “...” symbol on the far-right corner of the Fusion Set, as shown in Figure 1 above, and get the Fusion Set ID from the Fusion Set Detail Summary (as shown below): fusion Set Detail Summary image

        Figure 2: Fusion Set Detail Summary
        Note: Annotating the Fusion Set to identify the protection(s) selected is optional only (not mandatory).

      5. Follow the instructions below to use the Fusion Set ID inside any standard mobile DevOps or CI/CD toolkit like Bitrise, App Center, Jenkins, Travis, Team City, Cirlce CI or other system:
        1. Build an API for the app – for instructions, see the tasks under Appdome API Reference Guide
        2. Look for sample APIs in Appdome’s GitHub Repository
    2. Building the Prevent Accessibility Service Malware feature via Appdome Console

      To build the Prevent Accessibility Service Malware protection by using Appdome Console, follow the instructions below.

      1. Where: Inside the Appdome Console, go to Build > Anti Fraud Tab > Mobile Malware Prevention section.
      2. When you select the Prevent Accessibility Service Malware you'll notice that your Fusion Set you created in step 2.1.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Prevent Accessibility Service Malware

        Fusion Set applied Prevent Accessibility Service Malware

        Figure 4: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Prevent Accessibility Service Malware protection

      3. Select the Threat-Event™ in-app mobile Threat Defense and Intelligence policy for Prevent Accessibility Service Malware:
        1. Threat-Events™ OFF > In-App Defense

          If the Threat-Events™ setting is cleared (not selected). Appdome will detect and defend the user and app by enforcing Prevent Accessibility Service Malware.

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

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects abusive accessibility services 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™ for Prevent Accessibility Service Malware Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

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

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects and defends against Accessibility Service Malware (same as Appdome Enforce) and passes Appdome’s Threat-Event™ attack intelligence 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 Prevent Accessibility Service Malware Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

      4. Extra Configuration with Prevent Accessibility Service Malware:
        1. User Accessibility Service Consent

          Displays a message prompting the user to consent to allow the relevant accessibility services to track, use, modify, and perform gestures for you in this app. See https://www.appdome.com/how-to/mobile-malware-prevention/malware-controls/user-accessibility-service-consent/

        2. Set Trusted Accessibility Services

          Allows user to identify trusted Accessibility Services by package or service name. When only trusted accessibility services are running, no enforcements are triggered, and app usage will not be affected. See https://www.appdome.com/how-to/mobile-fraud-prevention/anti-spyware-android-ios/allow-android-accessibilityservice-for-approved-apps/

        3. Trust OS Default Accessibility Services

          Allows Android default list of accessibility services (e.g. Google VoiceAccess) to run as trusted services. See https://www.appdome.com/how-to/mobile-malware-prevention/malware-controls/trust-os-default-accessibility-services/

        4. Accessibility Service Abuse

          Detect abuse of Accessibility Services by permissions typically used by malware on Android 8 and earlier, including visibility on all running apps, using overlays, and intercepting SMS messages. See https://www.appdome.com/how-to/mobile-malware-prevention/malware-controls/accessibility-service-abuse/

      5. Click Build My App at the bottom of the Build Workflow (shown in Figure 3).
    Congratulations!  The Prevent Accessibility Service Malware protection is now added to the mobile app

Using Threat-Events™ for Accessibility Service Malware Intelligence and Control in Android Apps

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

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for Accessibility Service Malware are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Prevent Accessibility Service Malware Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Prevent Accessibility Service Malware
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 Preventing Accessibility Service Malware Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME ABUSIVE_ACCESSIBILITY_SERVICE_DETECTED
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF 6801
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
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
deviceID Current device ID
reasonCode Reason code of the occured event
buildDate Appdome fusion date of the current application
devicePlatform OS name of the current device
carrierName Carrier name of the current device
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

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 Accessibility Service Malware is detected.

The following is a code sample for native Android apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Prevent Accessibility Service Malware:


Using Appdome, there are no development or coding prerequisites to build secured Android Apps by using Prevent Accessibility Service Malware. 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 Prevent Accessibility Service Malware

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:

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

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