How to Protect Android Apps Against EventBot Malware

Last updated October 10, 2024 by Appdome

Learn how to detect and protect against EventBot Android malware in Android apps using Appdome’s no-code unified mobile app defense platform.

What is EventBot?

EventBot is an Android banking trojan that targets financial institutions worldwide. It spreads through malicious fake apps and phishing links, often disguised as legitimate applications like PDF readers (eg: Adobe) or productivity tools (Microsoft Word). Once installed, EventBot abuses accessibility services to steal sensitive financial information, such as login credentials and credit card details, by performing overlay attacks on banking and financial apps.
Additionally, it intercepts SMS messages, including one-time passwords (OTPs) used for multi-factor authentication (MFA), allowing attackers to bypass these security measures and carry out Account Takeovers (ATOs). Classified as a banking trojan, EventBot’s primary objective is financial fraud and identity theft by intercepting user interactions with banking applications. Its ability to monitor app events and intercept SMS communications makes it a serious threat to mobile users globally.

How Does Appdome Protect Against EventBot?

Taking all the above into consideration, you can use Appdome to protect against EventBot using a combination of the following protection methods:

  • RASP – Prevents EventBot from injecting itself into installed apps and repackaging them. Also includes anti-tampering, anti-debugging, anti-emulator, and other protections against dynamic attacks at runtime.
  • Code Obfuscation – Protects against decompiling and malicious reverse engineering.
  • Root Detection – Protects mobile apps from running on rooted devices, which bypass Android’s security controls. Rooting exposes apps to tampering, data theft, and malware by giving attackers elevated access to system files and app data.
  • Block App Overlay Attacks – Detects and prevents fake/malicious screen overlays from displaying on top of the app screen and concealing the legitimate app screen. Mobile malware and Trojans like EventBot use overlay attacks to trick users into revealing sensitive information or performing harmful actions inadvertently.
  • Keylogging Prevention – Prevents the use of malicious keyloggers which may be used to intercept two-factor authentication codes or harvest sensitive information.
  • Prevent Accessibility Services Malware – Prevents malicious actions taken by malware that exploit Android’s AccessibilityService, which when abused can be used to intercept sensitive inputs like passwords and 2FA codes, take screenshots, and simulate user actions such as taps and swipes. This allows attackers to manipulate apps, steal data, impersonate the real user, or perform fraudulent transactions without the user’s knowledge.
  • Google Play Store Signature Validation – Protects against fake apps, clones, masquerading, which malware often do to trick users into performing harmful actions.

Each of the protections above are linked to the relevant knowledge base article for that feature, which provide detailed information about each feature and also explain how to implement the protection in your Android app.

Prerequisites

To use Appdome’s to protect Android apps against EventBot, you’ll need the following:

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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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