The Trojan horse in your pocket: How an innocent app can empty your bank account

Abstract

In the digital age, mobile security is an extremely critical challenge given the growing proliferation of financial malware and sophisticated social engineering. This article explores how common mobile applications can contain sophisticated mechanisms for illegitimate financial extraction that exploit systematic abuses of critical permissions, overlay attacks, and stealthy credential capture. In summary, a combined static and dynamic analysis of malicious Android APKs is performed with the help of specialized tools such as Sandboxing, Wireshark, and permission analysis on Android devices. Common patterns of abuse of accessibility services and overlay techniques used to implement highly realistic banking interfaces are presented, with key examples of malware such as BianLian and SharkBot. With this approach to the threats presented and considering the options available to counter them. Strategies must be directed at users in executable ways, especially critical permission auditing and the identification of signs of social engineering. In conclusion, users must seek to protect themselves and application developers.