How to Detect Suspicious Accessibility Services in Android Apps Using AI

Last updated February 9, 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 Block Suspicious Accessibility Services in Android apps.

What Are Suspicious Accessibility Services?

Accessibility Service attacks exploit Android Accessibility Services, designed to assist users with disabilities, to gain unauthorized control over devices. Attackers use malicious apps to trick users into granting accessibility permissions, enabling them to monitor and interact with the device remotely. These permissions allow attackers to record keystrokes, view sensitive data, and manipulate app or device behavior without user awareness. Such attacks can lead to data breaches, account takeovers, and fraudulent transactions. Detecting suspicious accessibility services is essential for protecting sensitive data, preventing unauthorized access, and complying with data protection standards like GDPR.

How Appdome Protects Android Apps From Suspicious Accessibility Services

Appdome’s dynamic Detect Accessibility Service plugin monitors Android apps for unauthorized use of accessibility services by analyzing permission requests and app behaviors in real time. It identifies and blocks malicious apps exploiting these services for remote control, keystroke recording, or data access. Developers can leverage Appdome’s Threat-Events™ to gather insights on accessibility service threats and create custom responses, ensuring comprehensive security without disrupting legitimate accessibility features.

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's Block Suspicious Accessibility Services Plugins:

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

How to Implement Block Suspicious Accessibility Services in Android Apps Using Appdome

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

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

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

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

      3. When you select the Block Suspicious 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 Block Suspicious Accessibility Services.

        Fusion Set applied Block Suspicious Accessibility Services

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

      1. Navigate to Build > Anti ATO tab > Social Engineering Prevention section in the Appdome Console.
      2. Toggle On > Block Suspicious Accessibility Services.

        (a) Choose to monitor this attack vector by checking the Threat Events checkbox associated with Block Suspicious Accessibility Services as shown below.

        (b) To receive mobile Threat Monitoring, check the ThreatScope™ box as shown below. For more details, see our knowledge base article on ThreatScope™ Mobile XDR.
        Block Suspicious Accessibility Services option

        Figure 4: Selecting Block Suspicious Accessibility Services

      3. Select the Threat-Event™ in-app mobile Threat Defense and Intelligence policy for Block Suspicious Accessibility Services:
        1. Threat-Events™ OFF > In-App Defense

          If the Threat-Events™ setting is not selected. Appdome will detect and defend the user and app by enforcing Suspicious Accessibility Services.

        2. Threat-Events™ ON > In-App Detection

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects the existence of suspicious accessibility services and passes Appdome’s Threat-Event™ attack intelligence to the app’s business logic for processing, enforcement, and user notification. For more information on consuming and using Appdome Threat-Events™ in the app, see section Using Threat-Events™ to Block Suspicious Accessibility ServicesBlock Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

        3. Threat-Events™ ON > In-App Defense

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects and defends against Suspicious Accessibility Services (same as Appdome Enforce) and passes Appdome’s Threat-Event™ attack intelligence to the app’s business logic for processing. For more information on consuming and using Appdome Threat-Events™ in the app, see section Using Threat-Events™ for Block Suspicious Accessibility ServicesBlock Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

      4. Extra Configuration with Block Suspicious Accessibility Services:
        1. App Compromise Notification

          The message that will be shown to the user when the event is detected. The app will automatically exit.

        2. Localized Messages

          Upload file CSV or JSON for the localized compromise notification message. Key/left column locale e.g. en_US, Value/right column the localized message.

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

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

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

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

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

Threat-Event™ Elements Block Suspicious Accessibility Services Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Block Suspicious 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
Visible in ThreatScope™
Developer Parameters for Blocking Suspicious Accessibility Services Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME IllegalAccessibilityServiceEvent
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF 6801
Threat-Event SCORE
serviceName Remote desktop accessibility service
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 Suspicious Accessibility Services are detected.


The following is a code sample for native Android apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Block Suspicious 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 Apps by using Block Suspicious 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 Block Suspicious 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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