How to Set Trusted Accessibility Services

Last updated December 12, 2024 by Appdome

This Knowledge Base article describes how to use Appdome’s AI/ML in your CI/CD pipeline to continuously deliver plugins that Add Trusted Accessibility Services in Android apps.

What are Trusted Accessibility Services ?

Trusted Accessibility Services are those services identified by their package or service names that, when active, prevent the triggering of enforcement measures.

This ensures a seamless app experience for end users, with no disruption. While these trusted services operate without causing any issues for users.

To simplify the user experience further and avoid prompting end users for consent when these trusted services are in use, it is recommended to align the set of trusted services with the app’s release notes. To achieve this, utilize the ‘Set Trusted Accessibility Services’ toggle, which allows you to specify services exempted from monitoring. Running these services will not lead to the generation of alarms or events.

When only trusted accessibility services are running no enforcements will be triggered, and therefore end users will not experience any impact on app usage. Threat data will still be collected and visible on ThreatScope. When enabling User Accessibility Service Consent in addition to this protection, the end user will not be prompted to provide consent for trusted services.

Note:

Wildcard characters (‘*’) are supported when defining the trusted service identifiers. However, this should be used with caution as attackers may try to masquerade as trusted services by creating malware with package names or accessibility services that resemble identifiers of legitimate accessibility services in order to bypass detection. The recommendation is that if needed, the wildcard character in the right-most package component to mitigate this risk.

How do I Specify Trusted Accessibility Services?

You can specify which services are to be considered trusted accessibility services by using any of the following methods:

  • Manually add identifiers of trusted availability services
    Add a service or a package to the list of trusted accessibility service identifiers. You can either add a single service/package each time or add multiple services/packages by using a wildcard.
  • Trust all accessibility services that are shipped by default with Android OS.

Trusting Android OS Default Accessibility Services

To trust all accessibility services that are shipped by default with Android OS, such as Google VoiceAccess and Google Reading Mode, enable (toggle on) the feature Trust OS Default Accessibility Services.

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's Set Trusted Accessibility Services Plugins:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Add Trusted Accessibility Services , you’ll need:

How to Implement Add Trusted Accessibility Services in Android Apps Using Appdome

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

      1. Create and name the Fusion Set (security template) that will contain the Set Trusted Accessibility Services feature as shown below:
        fusion set that contains Set Trusted Accessibility Services

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Set Trusted Accessibility Services feature

      2. Follow the steps in Sections 2.2-2.2.2 of this article to add the Set Trusted Accessibility Services feature to your Fusion Set via the Appdome Console.

      3. When you select the Set Trusted Accessibility Services you'll notice that the Fusion Set you created in step 2.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Set Trusted Accessibility Services .

        Fusion Set applied Set Trusted Accessibility Services

        Figure 2: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Set Trusted Accessibility Services 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 Set Trusted Accessibility Services feature to your security template.

      1. Navigate to Build > Anti Fraud tab > Mobile Malware Prevention section in the Appdome Console.
      2. Toggle On > Set Trusted Accessibility Services .
        Set Trusted Accessibility Services  option

        Figure 4: Selecting Add Trusted Accessibility Services

    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 Set Trusted Accessibility Services protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the Set Trusted Accessibility Services feature in Android Apps

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

Using Threat-Events™ for Trusted Accessibility Services Intelligence and Control in Android Apps

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

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for Trusted Accessibility Services are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Add Trusted Accessibility Services Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Set Trusted Accessibility Services
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 Adding Trusted Accessibility Services 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 Trusted Accessibility Services are detected.


The following is a code sample for native Android apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Set Trusted Accessibility Services :


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 Set Trusted Accessibility Services . 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 Set Trusted Accessibility Services

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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