How to Protect Dynamic Windows and Dynamic Content in Android Apps

Last updated February 6, 2025 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 the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications in Android apps.

What are Dynamic Windows and Dynamic Content in Android Apps?

Protecting dynamic windows and floating UI elements in Android apps is critical for safeguarding sensitive data against unauthorized screen grabs, mirroring, or recordings. Attackers often exploit gaps in Android’s FLAG_SECURE mechanism, which fails to secure certain child UI components or dynamically generated windows like popups, toasts, dialog fragments, and spinners. These vulnerabilities expose high-risk apps in sectors such as banking, healthcare, and business to potential data theft. Extending protection to these elements ensures sensitive information remains secure, especially in high-security or regulated environments, where compliance with stringent data protection standards is essential.

How Appdome Protects Dynamic Windows and Dynamic Content in Android Apps?

Appdome’s dynamic Prevent App Screen Sharing plugin ensures that sensitive data from Android app screens, including floating windows and dynamically generated content, is protected against unauthorized screen-sharing, mirroring, and screenshots. Appdome goes beyond Android’s FLAG_SECURE mechanism by implementing Protect Dynamically Generated Windows, which extends protection to UI elements that don’t expose a developer-facing API, such as spinners, toasts, dialog fragments, and popups. This feature ensures that all such elements remain hidden from screen grab tools and cannot be captured by unauthorized methods.

Additionally, Appdome addresses Android’s FLAG_SECURE design flaw, which prevents some child UI elements of activities or fragments from being secured. Appdome’s solution automatically secures these elements without requiring code modifications from developers, offering full protection for UI components like DialogFragment, AlertDialog, PopupMenu, Toast, Spinner, and others. Even in third-party frameworks like React-Native, where FLAG_SECURE cannot be applied natively, Appdome ensures complete security coverage. This solution allows developers to safeguard sensitive app data displayed in dynamic windows without any extra development effort.

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's Protect Dynamic Windows Plugins:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Prevent the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications , you’ll need:

How to Implement Prevent the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications in Android Apps Using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending Android Apps that Prevent the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications 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. Protect Dynamic Windows is compatible with: Java, JS, C++, C#, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, Cordova and other Android apps.
  2. Select the defense: Protect Dynamic Windows.

      1. Create and name the Fusion Set (security template) that will contain the Protect Dynamic Windows feature as shown below:
        fusion set that contains Protect Dynamic Windows

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Protect Dynamic Windows feature

      2. Follow the steps in Sections 2.2-2.2.2 of this article to add the Protect Dynamic Windows feature to your Fusion Set via the Appdome Console.

      3. When you select the Protect Dynamic Windows you'll notice that the Fusion Set you created in step 2.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Protect Dynamic Windows.

        Fusion Set applied Protect Dynamic Windows

        Figure 2: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Protect Dynamic Windows 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 Protect Dynamic Windows feature to your security template.

      1. Navigate to Build > Anti ATO tab > Social Engineering Prevention section in the Appdome Console.
      2. Toggle On > Protect Dynamic Windows.
        Protect Dynamic Windows option

        Figure 4: Selecting Prevent the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications

      3. Optional Configuration with Protect Dynamic Windows:
        1. Protect Dynamically Generated Windows

          Extends App Screen Sharing Prevention to all Android floating windows.

    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 Protect Dynamic Windows protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the Protect Dynamic Windows feature in Android Apps

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

    Figure 5: 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 Protect Dynamic Windows has been added to each Android app. Certified Secure provides instant and in-line DevSecOps compliance certification that Protect Dynamic Windows and other mobile app security features are in each build of the mobile app.

Using Threat-Events™ for the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications Intelligence and Control in Android Apps

Appdome Threat-Events™ provides consumable in-app mobile app attack intelligence and defense control when the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications is detected. To consume and use Threat-Events™ for the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications in Android Apps, use registerReceiver in the Application OnCreate, and the code samples for Threat-Events™ for the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications shown below.

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Prevent the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Protect Dynamic Windows
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 x
Visible in ThreatScope™ x
Developer Parameters for Preventing the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF
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 the visibility of dynamic windows on screen grab applications is detected.


The following is a code sample for native Android apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Protect Dynamic Windows:


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 Apps by using Protect Dynamic Windows. 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 Protect Dynamic Windows

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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