How to Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling Using AI

Last updated August 3, 2025 by Appdome

This Knowledge Base article describes how to use Appdome’s AI in your CI/CD pipeline to continuously deliver plugins that Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling in Mobile apps.

What is Advertiser ID Cycling?

Device ID Cycling is a mobile fraud technique where attackers repeatedly change the device’s unique identifier to make it seem like each fraud attempt is coming from a different user or device.
Unique device identifiers are commonly used to track app installs, user behavior, and ad performance. Two widely used identifiers are GAID (Google Advertising ID) on Android and IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) on iOS—both of which can be reset by the user at any time. Attackers exploit this by cycling through fake identities to simulate large numbers of installs, new users, or fake ad impressions.

This tactic is hard to stop because it takes advantage of built-in operating system features and is often automated with spoofing tools. Preventing ID cycling is essential to blocking repeated fraud, protecting marketing metrics, and meeting anti-fraud and compliance requirements in mobile apps.

How Appdome Prevents Advertiser ID Cycling

Appdome’s dynamic Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling plugin detects when attackers attempt to reset or rotate device identifiers like GAID or IDFA to impersonate new devices. When cycling is detected, Appdome blocks the manipulation and keeps the device identity stable and consistent across app sessions.

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling Plugins:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling , you’ll need:

How to Implement Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling in Mobile Apps Using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these simple steps to create self-defending Mobile Apps that Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling 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. Mobile App Formats: .ipa for iOS, or .apk or .aab for Android
    3. Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling is compatible with: Obj-C, Java, JS, C#, C++, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, and more.
  2. Select the defense: Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling.

      1. Create and name the Fusion Set (security template) that will contain the Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling feature as shown below:
        fusion set that contains Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling feature

      2. Follow the steps in Sections 2.2-2.2.2 of this article to add the Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling feature to your Fusion Set via the Appdome Console.

      3. When you enable Protect Advertising IDs you'll notice that the Fusion Set you created in step 2.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling.

        Fusion Set applied Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling

        Figure 2: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling 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 Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling feature to your security template.

      1. Navigate to Build > IDAnchor tab > Android IDAnchor section in the Appdome Console.
      2. Toggle On Protect Advertising IDs > Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling.
        Note: The checkmark feature Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling is enabled by default, as shown below. Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling option

        Figure 4: Selecting Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling

    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 Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling feature in Mobile Apps

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

Using Threat-Events™ for Advertiser ID Cycling Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps

Appdome Threat-Events™ provides consumable in-app mobile app attack intelligence and defense control when Advertiser ID Cycling is detected. To consume and use Threat-Events™ for Advertiser ID Cycling in Mobile Apps, use AddObserverForName in Notification Center, and the code samples for Threat-Events™ for Advertiser ID Cycling shown below.

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for Advertiser ID Cycling are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling
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 x
Visible in ThreatScope™ x
Developer Parameters for Preventing Advertiser ID Cycling Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event SCORE
currentThreatEventScore Current Threat-Event score
threatEventsScore Total Threat-events score
Threat-Event Context Keys
Timestamp The exact time the threat event was triggered, recorded in milliseconds since epoch
message Message displayed for the user on event
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
deviceBrand Brand of the device
deviceBoard Board of the device
buildUser Build user
buildHost Build host
sdkVersion Sdk version
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), Mobile developers can get detailed attack intelligence and granular defense control in Mobile applications and create amazing user experiences for all mobile end users when Advertiser ID Cycling is detected.


The following is a code sample for native Mobile apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling:


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 Mobile Apps by using Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling. 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 Prevent Advertiser ID Cycling

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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