How to Protect Android Apps Against PixBankBot Malware

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

What is PixBankBot?

PixBankBot is an Android banking trojan targeting Brazilian users and banking apps. It spreads through malicious apps and phishing links, often disguised as legitimate banking applications. Once installed, PixBankBot uses Android’s Accessibility Services to steal sensitive financial information, such as login credentials, credit card details, and intercepts SMS messages, including two-factor authentication (2FA) codes. It also employs overlay attacks to trick users into entering their information into fake interfaces. Its primary goal is financial theft, allowing attackers to manipulate transactions and steal funds, particularly through Brazil’s Pix payment system. PixBankBot poses a significant threat to user privacy and financial security by conducting fraudulent transactions without users’ awareness.

How Does Appdome Protect Against PixBankBot?

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

• RASP – Prevents PixBankBot 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.
• MitM Attack Prevention – Prevents PixBankBot from intercepting or hijacking sessions to harvest or steal 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 PixBankBot 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.
• Prevent ATS Malware – Detects active transaction hijacking attempts, blocks the attempt and notifies the user.

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 PixBankBot, you’ll need the following:

• Appdome account (create a free Appdome account here)
• A license for the relevant features mentioned above.
• Mobile App (.apk or .aab for Android)
• Signing Credentials (see Signing Secure Android apps).

Related Articles:

• How to Protect Android Apps Against CraxsRAT Malware
• How to Protect Android Apps Against BrasDex Malware
• How to Protect Android Apps Against FjordPhantom Malware
• How to Protect Android Apps Against Panda Malware
• How to Protect Android Apps Against Brokewell Malware
• How to Protect Android Apps Against Hiddad Malware

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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