Understanding ThreatScope Mobile XDR

Intro

ThreatScope Mobile XDR offers insight into the actual attacks and threats faced by Appdome-protected apps once they’re released into production. The dashboard’s data refreshes every 24 hours, allowing security teams to monitor evolving attacks and swiftly respond to emerging trends in real-time. To ensure that threats faced by a protected app are displayed on the dashboard, there’s no need for prerequisites, API integrations by the Operations teams, or code changes by the mobile development teams.

Setting up Access to ThreatScope Dashboard

Access to protected app’s threat data on the ThreatScope Dashboard is gated only to viewer accounts that meet the following conditions:

• • The viewer account is licensed to access the ThreatScope Dashboard
    Submit a request to Appdome support to activate the license for the accounts that should have access to threat data.

• Threat data originates from teams of which the viewer is a member.
  The team leader of each production team should configure the viewer account. For details, see the section Configuring the Viewer Account.
• The viewer has the View ThreatScope entitlement in the team.
  For more details, see the section Adding the View ThreatScope Entitlement to the Viewer’s Account below.

Configuring the Viewer Account

To configure the viewer account, the team leader needs to:

1. Open the User Menu.
2. Click on Team Management.
   
3. Expand each production team by clicking the  button.
4. Review the team member list.
   If the requested viewer’s account does not appear, invite the viewer by clicking the Invite Others button .
5. Type the viewer account’s name and hit enter. When done, click Invite.
   
6. After the viewer accepts the invitation, proceed to the next step of adding the required entitlements to the team.

Add View ThreatScope Entitlement to Members Account

In order to add the View ThreatScope entitlement to a member’s account of a production team, the team leader should follow these steps:

1. Click on Team Management account in the user menu and click the   button to add entitlements.
   A list of the entitlements available for the account will be displayed.
2. Click the View ThreatScope entitlement.
   

Lack of the View ThreatScope entitlement

Cause:

The viewer attempted to access the ThreatScope dashboard, while the viewer’s account is a member of at least one team, that team does not have the View ThreatScope entitlement permissions.

Remediation:

Add the View ThreatScope entitlement to each team to give the viewer access to threat data. For additional information, see the section on Setting up access to ThreatScope Dashboard.

Viewer is not a member of any team

Cause:

The viewer tried to access the ThreatScope dashboard by using the All My Teams workspace, while the viewer’s account is not a member of any team.

Remediation:

Request the production team leader to invite the viewer’s account to join the team and add the View ThreatScope entitlement to each team, so that the viewer can access the threat data. For further information, see section Setting up access to ThreatScope Dashboard.

Viewer or View ThreatScope entitlement was removed

Cause:

The viewer tried to access a team in the ThreatScope dashboard, however the viewer’s account was removed from a team or the View ThreatScope entitlement was removed from the viewer’s account in that team.

Remediation:

Request the production team leader to invite the viewer’s account to join the team and add the View ThreatScope entitlement to each team so that the viewer can access the threat data. For further information, see section Setting up access to ThreatScope Dashboard.

Reviewing the Dashboard Structure

The dashboard allows you to perform the following tasks:

• Select the viewing scope
• Select the date range
• Review the geographical source of threats
• View all attacks
• Use the Threat Stream widget
• Display top 10 defenses breakdown
• View Attacks Breakdown
• Filter Missing Intelligence
• Review threat streams

Selecting the Viewing Scope

The dashboard viewer allows defining the scope of data items (threats) to be displayed, from the following options:

• A specific team
  View only threats associated to apps built by the selected team
  
• All my teams
  View threats associated to apps built from all teams that the ThreatScope viewer is entitled to access
  
• Personal workspace
  

Selecting the Date Range

The Set Date Range section allows defining the date range of data items (threats) to be displayed. By default the date range is defined as the last 30 days, but this range can be extended in accordance with the ThreatScope dashboard license.

Reviewing the geographical source of threats

The GeoSource section displays a map that allows viewing the country from which the attacks originate.
Countries are colored based on the volume of threats detected in the region. For clarification, see the legend on the right.

Hover over the requested country to see a breakdown of the information by the following items:

• Country name
• Date range
  Only threats from the listed date range are aggregated.
• Total attacks
  The sum represents all attacks originating from the country over which the mouse hovers.
  
  

To select one or more countries:

• To select a single country, click the requested country on the map or select its corresponding checkbox. To deselect, click the checkbox of the already selected country.
• To select multiple countries, simply check the boxes next to each requested country.
  
  

Types of Geography-based data input

The following types of geography-based data input exist:

• Non-specific
  The default data input on Appdome relies on the public IP address captured from its analytics server to map the threat’s location. Given that attackers can mask their public IP using tools such as VPNs and proxies, this data is labeled as “non-specific,” namely because we cannot always pinpoint the precise source of an attack.

• Specific
  In this case the data input is the device location data (GPS). However, since accessing location data requires declaring specific permission in the app and the user consent, this type of threat geo-source is not the default option and requires opting in when building the app on Appdome.

What can be inferred from the data

• Ability to create a focus list of countries that generate the most attacks
  Customers that have a web application firewall (WAF) in place can use this data stream to apply different security policies based on the threat landscape of the app and the app’s user base.
• Visibility on how the threat types are distributed within a given country
  This can enable tracking which vectors are used by different local and global actors.
• You can use the Snapshots feature to download the current view of the selected GeoSource.
  

Reviewing Unique Devices ID Report

After applying the selected filters, the displayed sum of Threat Events and Attacks represents the accumulation of all events that occurred, on a large number of devices. 

Each device may experience multiple events, and the distribution of events between devices can result in different insights. For example, if there are 1000 events, but 990 of them occurred on one device, the situation would differ significantly compared to if those 1000 events were spread across 1000 individual devices.

In order to gain more insights regarding the distribution of events, Appdome provides users the ability to generate a report that describes how many devices were involved in each of the chosen event types.

1. Apply selected ThreatScope filters
   Note: The user must choose at lease one specific Event Type or Reason Code in order to produce the report.
2. Click on the download drop down button on top right
3. Select Download Unique Device ID report
4. The report is downloaded – listing the number of unique devices per event, according to the selected filters.

The report will return in JSON format; each object includes the name of the attack and the amount of involved devices:

{
    "<FAC Event Name #1>": {
	"eventType": "< Event externalID>",
	"impactedDevices": "< # of unique device IDs for externalID in selected filters>"
    },
    "<FAC Event Name #2>": {
	"eventType": "< Event externalID>",
	"impactedDevices": "< # of unique device IDs for externalID in selected filters>”
    }
}

Viewing All Attacks

The Viewing Trend: All Attacks section displays all attacks per threat stream, with each line representing a time interval based on the selected time period (date range): days, weeks, or months.

This section contains the following components:

• Date range selector
  Use the date range buttons (Days/Weeks/Months) on the top center to control the time period represented by each dot on the trend.
  Note: The Months view selector is only available when the ThreatScope dashboard date range is three months or longer.
• Daily Impacted Devices Average
  Calculated by dividing the total number of attacks and threats by the number of days in the ThreatScope dashboard date range.
• Threat Stream Graph Legends
  Enables filtering out Threat Streams by clicking on the matching legend in the Viewing Trend: All Attacks.
  All changes made only affect the Viewing Trend: All Attacks tile. For example, the screenshot below demonstrates how Intelligence Missed threat stream can be filtered out.

Hover a dot somewhere over the trend line to see the following data items:

• Date
  Displays the date range represented by each dot on the trend line; day, week, or month.
• Total Detected/Protected
  The value in this field represents the number of attacks and threats associated to the threat stream being hovered over, corresponding to the date range listed in the Date field.
  This field name is Total Protected when the trend line relates to threat streams in which Appdome blocked the attack; otherwise the name is Total Detected.
• Total Per Day/Week/Month
  Sums the total number of attacks and threats from all threat streams for the date range listed in the Date field.
• Defense Mode
  This value specifies the enforcement mode for the given threat stream, which is labeled with one of the following values:

• Intel
  Indicates that intelligence was collected without any enforcement (ThreatScope Only Configuration).
  
• App
  Indicates that the App is responsible for enforcing against attacks.
  
• Appdome
  Indicates that Appdome is responsible for enforcing against attacks.
  

Using the Threat Stream widget

The Threat Stream Widget displays the distribution of attacks of the selected date range between the various threat streams.

What can be inferred from the data?

• Evaluate the risk level of released apps
  By tracking blocked and app-enforced threats.
• Compare intelligence gathered by released apps
  With the real volume of attacks and threats.

Filtering the display

Click on any Threat Steam tile to apply the selected threat steam as a filter. You can also filter by multiple threats, by clicking on more than one threat stream to add them to the filter.

Displaying Top Defenses Breakdown

The Top Defenses section allows displaying a breakdown of the top defenses by App, OS, and manufacturer.

What can be inferred from the data?

The data displayed in this section allows generating a list of the characteristics of the apps and devices that are most targeted by the attacks.

Hover over a graph line in any of the Top Defenses Breakdown tile to display the following breakdown:

• App/OS/Device
  List the top attack’s identifier.
• Total Detected\Protected
  The value of this field represents the number of attacks and threats associated to the threat stream being hovered in the date range listed in the Date field.
  This field name is Total Protected when the trend line relates to threat streams in which Appdome blocked the attack; otherwise the name is Total Detected.
• Defense Mode
  See description in section Viewing all attacks.
• Threat Event
  See description in section Viewing all attacks.

The Average widget

The Average widget displays the following information:

• Avg. Attacks per App
  Calculated by dividing the total number of attacks and threats in the Top Defenses By App tile divided by the number of listed apps.
• Avg. Attacks per OS
  Calculated by dividing the total number of attacks & threats in the Top Defenses By OS tile divided by the number of listed OS versions.
• Avg. Attacks per Device
  Calculated by dividing the total number of attacks & threats in the Top Defenses By Device tile divided by the number of listed manufacturers.

Attacks Breakdown

The Attacks Breakdown displays the attacks divided by Threat type:

• ONEShield™ by Appdome
• Mobile App Security
• Mobile Fraud Detection
• Mobile Malware Prevention
• Mobile Cheat Prevention
• MOBILEBot™ Defense – Attack Breakdown Coming Soon

When hovering over each Threat Type graph, the tooltip will display the top 3 attacks for said type.

Note: When clicking on one of the the visualization tools on the bottom, the data of said Threat Stream will be eliminated from the chart. This is not a filter and will not affect the data in the tooltip.

Expanding the Attacks Breakdown

To expand the display for each Attack, click on the desired event type graph.

You can also click on the ‘Expand’ button on the top right corner for the expanded display of all Event types.

Collapse the display back to default mode by clicking on ‘Collapse’

Filtering Threat Intelligence

Threat-Inspect™

The Threat-Inspect™ menu on the left side panel allows to easily filter and create custom views of the Threat Scope data.

1. Select the Data displayed form one of the following categories

All Data – Displays all accumulated data by the number of individual events. If a specific device experiences several events of the same type, all events will be counted.

Impacted Devices – Summarizes the number of unique devices any event occurred on. If one specific device experiences a certain event a number of times, it will still be counted as one device.

Build to Test Events – Summarizes the Threat Events data only for apps that were build with the Build-to-Test feature. These apps are built specifically for testing via third party vendors. Learn more about Appdome’s Build-to-Test

Bot Defense Data – Access complete payload data from Appdome’s MOBILEBot™ Defense (MBD) solution for insights on mobile infrastructure. Detect and prevent attacks like credential stuffing and DDoS by correlating and validating real attacks.

Unique Attacks – Displays an in-depth diagnosis of each attack enabling precise identification of critical cyber and fraud attacks on mobile apps in production. Geo-location, source identification, attack methods, and techniques for effortless threat detection are all covered.

2. Filter the data

You can filter the data using each one of the following filters, you can combine filters to create unique views and gain further insight on the events your Appdome-built apps are facing.

The filters that can be used for controlling the displayed data are:

• Threat Stream – The type of defense implemented in Threat Events.
• Event Type – The protections name on FAC.
• Task ID – The unique ID for a protected app on FAC.
• Bundle ID – The app’s identifier as listed in the AndroidManifest.xml or Info.plist file.
• Fusion Set Name – The name of the fusion set to which the protected app is subscribed.
• Fusion Set ID – The ID of the fusion set to which the protected app is subscribed.
• Manufacturer – The device manufacturer associated to the detected attack.
• OS – The platform associated to the detected attack.
• OS Version – The OS Version associated to the detected attack.
• Country – For further information, see section Reviewing the geographical source of threats.
• ReasonCode – The Threat/Attack user-facing code from the mobile device. The Reason Code is used in the “ThreatScope™ User Remediation Center”, to understand the specific events or metadata that triggered the threat. Customer support organizations can use this information to instruct the mobile user on how to remediate the threat and get back to using the mobile app.

3. Create View

When the data is filtered, you can save it by creating a view.

You can access your custom views via the main drop-down menu.

Learn more about Threat Inspect. 

Filtering by Specific Builds

The section View Specific Builds with Threats Only allows:

• Applying a filter to the ThreatScope by using specific builds of protected apps.
  Using the search bar the viewer can find a specific build by looking for any of the attributes shown below. Tile filter is synchronized with the filter pane. For further information, see section Filter Pane.
• Scrolling through the list of protected apps which are associated to the attacks & threats shown in the dashboard. The Build ID of the threat can by copied by clicking on the copy icon ;

Avg. Attack Widgets

In some cases you may want to get a sense of the base line of attacks and threats to which the app is exposed. This helps to determine when the protected app is being actively attacked as part of a focused campaign, by comparing the current volume of threats to the average line to identify anomalies.

Reviewing Threat Streams

Attacks displayed in the dashboard are categorized by Threat Streams, which will allow the security team investigating the attack trends to prioritize the effort and set clear steps to mitigate each threat by its associated stream. A Threat Stream is defined by the enforcement and intelligence policy set for a protection within a fusion set.

The Threat Streams are configured as following:

• New Threats
  • Enforcement Policy – No enforcement.
  • Intelligence Policy – No intelligence is sent to the app. Threat event is not active.
  • Summary – The app will not receive the threat event on attacks, and because the app is not aware of attacks and Appdome does not block the attacks the app is not protected.
• Appdome Protected
  • Enforcement Policy – Appdome blocked against the attacks
  • Intelligence Policy – No intelligence is sent to the app. Threat event is not active.
  • Summary – The app is protected because Appdome blocks the attack, but the app does not receive the threat event following the attacks. The intelligence is sent to and visible on ThreatScope dashboard.
• Defense & Intel
  • Enforcement Policy – Appdome blocked against the attacks.
  • Intelligence Policy – Threat Event was configured as In-App Defense.
  • Summary – The app is protected. Appdome blocks the attack and the app receives the threat event, which means that analytics can be captured.
• Intel Missed
  • Enforcement Policy – Appdome blocked against the attacks
  • Intelligence Policy – Threat Event was configured as In-App Defense, however Receiver | Observer is not properly implemented for consuming the Threat Event
  • Summary – The app is protected since Appdome will block the attack, however the app will not receive the threat event following the attacks which means that analytics will not be captured.
• Attacks Detected
  • Enforcement Policy – The app is responsible for enforcing against the attack
  • Intelligence Policy – Threat Event configured as In-App Detection.
  • Summary – The app will receive the threat event on attacks; however, because the app is responsible for enforcing, the protection level depends on the implementation of the app.

The following threat streams are visualized in various areas in the dashboard:

1. Filter Pane
   Action
   Selecting or clearing will respectively filter in or out which Threat Streams are displayed in the dashboard. Changes to the Threat Stream filter affect the entire dashboard.
   
2. Viewing Trend: All Attacks legend
   Action
   Selecting a Threat Streams legend in the Viewing Trend: All Attacks tile filters out the stream. Changes affect only the Viewing Trend: All Attacks tile.
   
3. Threat Stream Widgets
   Action

   Selecting any of the following widgets: Attack Missed, Threat Intel Missed, Attacks Stopped, and Attacks Captured apply a filter of the threat streams associated to the widget. Selecting a widget affects the entire dashboard.

   For further information, see section Using the Threat Stream widget.
   

4. Top Defense Breakdown
   Action
   Hovering over each threat stream (differentiated by color) within a graph bar displays a tooltip that summarizes the stream.
   
   
   

Related Articles

• Threat-Events™, In-App Threat Intelligence in Native iOS Apps
• How to Use ThreatScope™ User Remediation Center
• Understanding ThreatScope Views

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.