Android users love to modify their smartphone. There are different methods which people use for the same. Some prefer custom ROMs, some root their device and use different modules while some prefer everything. However, you might have noticed that banking apps are slowly restricting access to those who use Magisk (root their device) or use custom ROMs.
For many of you, it might be frustrating. Passing SafetyNet checks is getting harder day-by-day and some of these banking apps don’t work even after you pass SafetyNet check. And you might be wondering, why they are fixated on blocking access for these reasons.
Why banking apps are blocking access for root and custom ROM users?
There are many apps which can steal data after getting root access. And custom ROMs can also be used for data stealing, if the developer wish to.
Now you might say that we are not idiots who would install any random app and give it root access. Or flash any random custom ROM which would steal your data. Right?
Well, maybe that’s true for you! You can’t speak for everyone. Yes, people followed different tutorials and at the end unlocked bootloader, flashed custom recovery and so on. So, you might say that such people will be smart enough to not do anything stupid. And that’s where you are wrong.
There are many people who blindly follow whatever some random YouTuber or some tutorial says. And they just flash whatever they are asked to.
During PUBG Mobile’s peak popularity, some nasty people created modules to uninstall PUBG Mobile and gave it names like 90 FPS unlock or some more interesting names. And people actually flashed that thing. Seriously, many people did!
And similarly, people follow random YouTubers all the time.
Besides that, if you follow device specific groups of different devices, you will notice that many people don’t even understand what they are doing. I have seen many people flashing decrypted ROM or flashing DFE on their ROM without knowing the bad side of decrypted ROM.
What can custom ROMs or apps with root-access do?
As I mentioned above, custom ROMs can include keyloggers or something else to steal your data. Keep this in mind that they usually don’t do that. It is quite rare to find any custom ROM do anything like this. However, this doesn’t mean that they can’t do it.
And the apps you gave root access can do just anything with your phone. People who install only trustworthy apps are usually safe. However, people install random apps a lot when they use Android. Don’t they? These apps, if they want to, can track what you are doing, steal your data and key-log everything you type.
And besides these, they can do a lot more harm if they are designed to do so. Of course, if you use trusted apps from verified sources then it will be extremely unlikely for you to face any issue like these.
Conclusion:
Banking apps obviously want their customers to use their apps in good environment. If something goes wrong with their app then they will be blamed, not you.
Banking apps mostly works fine with custom ROMs if the ROM is following some basic security checks like SafetyNet and SE Linux Policy being Enforcing. And while it is not as easy as before, it is still possible to use banking apps in rooted phone by making your phone pass SafetyNet checks.
