How to Detect Magisk Hide in Android Apps

Last updated November 27, 2023 by Appdome

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

What is Magisk Hide?

Magisk Hide hides root permissions for selected apps, allowing them to run with root access while hiding that your device is rooted. Starting from Magisk version 24, Magisk Hide is replaced by Zygisk, which hides the root through the DenyList feature.

Why Prevent Magisk Hide in Android Apps?

Magisk enables root privileges status for other, more advanced tools such as hex editors and dynamic code injection frameworks like Frida. In addition, Magisk can be used for injecting malware by turning on the Allow Unknown Sources setting. When this setting is enabled, the mobile device allows installing applications from any developers, publisher or source outside of the Google Play store. This is an extremely high level of trust, which would not have been given otherwise. And if a root cloaking feature such as Magisk Hide or Zygisk, which is part of Magisk Manager, is enabled, both the rooted status of the device and the applications that are using (or abusing) root access are concealed. This makes detecting root device much harder.

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's Block Magisk Hide Plugins:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Prevent Magisk Hide , you’ll need:

How to Implement Prevent Magisk Hide in Android Apps Using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending Android Apps that Prevent Magisk Hide 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. Block Magisk Hide is compatible with: Java, JS, C++, C#, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, Cordova and other Android apps.
  2. Select the defense: Block Magisk Hide.

      1. Create and name the Fusion Set (security template) that will contain the Block Magisk Hide feature as shown below:
        fusion set that contains Block Magisk Hide .

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Block Magisk Hide 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 Block Magisk Hide feature to your Fusion Set via the Appdome Console.

      3. When you select the Block Magisk Hide you'll notice that the Fusion Set you created in step 2.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Block Magisk Hide.

        Fusion Set applied Block Magisk Hide

        Figure 2: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Block Magisk Hide 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 Block Magisk Hide feature to your security template.

      1. Navigate to Build > Anti Fraud tab > Mobile Malware Prevention section in the Appdome Console.
      2. Toggle On > Block Magisk Hide.

        (a) Choose to monitor this attack vector by checking the Threat Events checkbox associated with Block Magisk Hide 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.
        Block Magisk Hide option

        Figure 4: Selecting Prevent Magisk Hide

        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 Block Magisk Hide:
        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 Magisk Hide.

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

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects Magisk Hide 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 Block Magisk HidePrevent Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

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

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects and defends against Magisk Hide (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 Block Magisk HidePrevent Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

      4. Configure the User Experience Options for Block Magisk Hide:
        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 Magisk Hide

        4. Block Magisk Hide Threat Code™. Appdome uses AI/ML to generate a unique code each time Block Magisk Hide 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.
      5. Optional Configuration with Block Magisk Hide:
        1. Block Magisk Hide

          Detects and blocks Magisk Hide, a feature that hides root permissions for selected apps, allowing them to run with root access while hiding that your device is rooted.

        2. Block Zygisk

          Detects and blocks Zygisk, a feature that replaced Magisk Hide in v.24. Zygisk provides better capabilities of hiding root permissions from Banking Apps and hides the root before Apps start to process after booting the device.

    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 Block Magisk Hide protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the Block Magisk Hide feature in Android Apps

    After building Block Magisk Hide, Appdome generates a Certified Secure™ certificate to guarantee that the Block Magisk Hide protection has been added and is protecting the app. To verify that the Block Magisk Hide protection has been added to the mobile app, locate the protection in the Certified Secure™ certificate as shown below: Block Magisk Hide 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 Block Magisk Hide has been added to each Android app. Certified Secure provides instant and in-line DevSecOps compliance certification that Block Magisk Hide and other mobile app security features are in each build of the mobile app.

Using Threat-Events™ for Magisk Hide Intelligence and Control in Android Apps

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

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for Magisk Hide are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Prevent Magisk Hide Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Block Magisk Hide
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 Magisk Hide Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME MagiskManagerDetected
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF 6908
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.
internalError Internal error code as hex
extendedMessageText Internal error code
rInternalErrorCode Internal error code
data The artifcat used to detect the presence of Magisk Manager on the device
detectedAppPath When applicable this will hold the app identifier that triggered the detection

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 Magisk Hide is detected.


The following is a code sample for native Android apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Block Magisk Hide:


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 Block Magisk Hide. 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 Block Magisk Hide

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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