How to Protect Android Apps Against SOVA Malware

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

What is SOVA?

SOVA is a sophisticated Android banking trojan that spreads through malicious apps and phishing links, often disguised as legitimate applications. Once installed, it exploits Android Accessibility Services to capture sensitive information and perform unauthorized actions within banking apps. Sova employs overlay attacks to trick users into entering credentials into fake screens and intercepts SMS messages to steal one-time passwords and other sensitive data. Its primary objective is financial fraud and identity theft by intercepting and manipulating user interactions with financial applications.

How Does Appdome Protect Against SOVA?

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

• RASP – Prevents Sova from injecting itself into installed apps and repackaging them.
• Code Obfuscation – Protects against decompiling and malicious reverse engineering.
• Root Detection – Protects app from running on rooted Android device.
• MitM Attack Prevention  – Prevents Sova from intercepting or hijacking sessions to steal data.
• Keylogging Prevention – Prevents the use of malicious keyloggers which may be used to intercept two-factor authentication codes or harvest sensitive information.
• 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.
• Prevent Accessibility Services Malware – Detects and prevents malicious actions against mobile apps and users undertaken by malware and malware families that abuses Android AccessibilityService in mobile apps
• Google Play Store Signature Validation – protects against fake apps, clones, masquerading.

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

Prerequisites

To use Appdome’s to protect Android apps against SOVA, 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 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.

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.