1. What is Custom Blacklist?
The custom blacklist is the first feature of Android AppSealing's Over-the-Air update service. App administrators can block suspicious apps that are not blocked by AppSealing's default blacklist.
Since the default blacklist of AppSealing is applied to the app and does not change dynamically in the app's runtime, the AppSealing must be applied again and distributed to the market for the default blacklist updates. However, the custom blacklist feature can be managed through OTA Update, so once you activate the feature, you can manage the end user's blacklist by modifying the custom blacklist list in the AppSealing Developer Console without having to reapply the AppSealing.
Currently, the OTA update service is not available in Trial or Professional Plans and can be activated through separate consultations and Enterprise contracts. If you contact the AppSealing business team or the help center, we will provide you with more details. In order to use the custom blacklist, the OTA update service must be activated first.
2. Apply custom blacklist in ADC.
After the OTA update service is activated on your account, you can manage the custom blacklist.
Custom blacklist lists can be managed by app, and when the OTA update service is activated, the app list on the right side of the Android security service page will be changed as follows.
| Before activating the OTA update | After activating the OTA update |
If you press the "Manage Blacklist" button in the changed interface, the management window appears, and you can manage suspicious apps to block from the selected app.
1) First window
The screen below is the basic screen that appears by pressing the Custom Blacklist Management button. In the custom blacklist template on the left, you can add the package name of the app to be monitored, and select Allow or Block.
Note! If the app is already blocked AppSealing's default blacklist, it will be blocked even if it is allowed with the custom blacklist feature, so please check the app is already blocked by AppSealing or not if you want to add blacklist.
2) Manage Blacklist template
Custom blacklist templet panel is provided to manage blacklist before publish it to end-user.
3) Publish Blacklist template
When you create a blacklist template list and press the "Publish→" button, the blacklist list is reflected in the AppSealing Over-the-air update server, and this information is visible at the 'Published custom blacklist' panel.
3. How to verify the custom blacklist?
After the custom blacklist publishes is over, you should activate and apply the custom blacklist option when applying AppSealing to the app.
Whenever the sealed app runs with the custom blacklist enabled, the app downloads the server's custom blacklist at launching time. If the suspicious app in the custom blacklist list is installed on the device, the AppSealing module detects it and shows a Toast message to the end-user, and the app is closed.
After updating the custom blacklist list, you can check if the app updates the blacklist normally to block it.
4. How to stop updating your custom blacklist?
If you want to stop using the custom blacklist function with it already deployed to the end-user, you can select the 'Disable OTA update' button in the management window. If you stop OTA updates, you will see that the OTA update function has been stopped when the deployed app runs, and will not check the custom blacklist list from the next run. In this case, the end-users app will use the last published custom blacklist, and will never update again until the app publisher applies AppSealing with the custom blacklist option again.
5. How much is the custom blacklist?
For Over-The-Air feature pricing, Please contact the Sales team.