How to Protect Android Apps With IDAnchor Using AI

Last updated July 31, 2025 by Appdome

This Knowledge Base article describes how to use Appdome’s AI in your CI/CD pipeline to continuously deliver plugins that Use IDAnchor in Android apps.

What is IDAnchor?

IDAnchor is a Customer Identity Protection (CIP) solution that delivers a persistent, tamper-proof Mobile Device ID to bind each app session to a trusted mobile environment. Unlike system identifiers like IDFA, GAID, and IDFV—which are user-resettable and easily spoofed—IDAnchor generates a stable identity using immutable signals across the device, app install, and app release lifecycle. This identity remains consistent even across reinstalls, resets, and app updates, helping stop fraud techniques such as account takeovers, promo abuse, synthetic device creation, and credential reuse. Because modern fraud often involves legitimate logins from compromised or unknown devices, IDAnchor enables developers to detect anomalies even when no active threat is present. The similarity scoring engine provides a confidence level indicating how closely the current session matches the known device profile. This defense supports compliance efforts such as PSD2 and FFIEC by enabling contextual risk checks without using PII.

How Appdome Protects Android Apps With IDAnchor

Appdome’s dynamic IDAnchor plugin for Android and iOS apps creates a persistent, cryptographically bound Mobile Device ID using secure signals from the device, OS, and app. The plugin also generates unique install and release fingerprints that survive resets, while preventing spoofing, ID rotation, and device cycling. Developers can retrieve IDAnchor values on demand or during threat events, compare values in-app or on-server, and use similarity scoring to assess identity confidence. Appdome’s Threat-Events™ provides real-time alerts and controls when ID anomalies or spoofing attempts are detected.

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's IDAnchor Plugins:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Use IDAnchor , you’ll need:

How to Implement Use IDAnchor in Android Apps Using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending Android Apps that Use IDAnchor 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. Android Formats: .apk or .aab
    3. IDAnchor is compatible with: Java, JS, C++, C#, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, Cordova and other Android apps.
  2. Select the defense: IDAnchor.

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

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the IDAnchor feature

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

      3. When you select the IDAnchor you'll notice that the Fusion Set you created in step 2.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains IDAnchor.

        Fusion Set applied IDAnchor

        Figure 2: Fusion Set that displays the newly added IDAnchor 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 IDAnchor feature to your security template.

      1. Navigate to Build > IDAnchor tab > Android IDAnchor section in the Appdome Console.
      2. Toggle On > IDAnchor.

        (a) Choose to monitor this attack vector by checking the Threat Events checkbox associated with IDAnchor as shown below.

        (b) To receive mobile Threat Monitoring, check the ThreatScope™ box as shown below. For more details, see our knowledge base article on ThreatScope™ Mobile XTM.
        IDAnchor option

        Figure 4: Selecting Use IDAnchor

      3. Select the Threat-Event™ in-app mobile Threat Defense and Intelligence policy for IDAnchor:
        1. Threat-Events™ ON > In-App Detection

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects attempts to spoof, cycle, or reset the device identity and passes Appdome’s Threat-Event™ attack intelligence to the app’s business logic for processing, enforcement, and user notification. For more information on consuming and using Appdome Threat-Events™ in the app, see section Using Threat-Events™ for Use IDAnchor Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

    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 IDAnchor protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the IDAnchor feature in Android Apps

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

Using Threat-Events™ for IDAnchor Intelligence and Control in Android Apps

Appdome Threat-Events™ provides consumable in-app mobile app attack intelligence and defense control when IDAnchor is detected. To consume and use Threat-Events™ for IDAnchor in Android Apps, use registerReceiver in the Application OnCreate, and the code samples for Threat-Events™ for IDAnchor shown below.

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for IDAnchor are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Use IDAnchor Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name IDAnchor
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
Visible in ThreatScope™
Developer Parameters for Using IDAnchor Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME IDAnchor
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), Android developers can get detailed attack intelligence and granular defense control in Android applications and create amazing user experiences for all mobile end users when IDAnchor is detected.


The following is a code sample for native Android apps, which uses all values in the specification above for IDAnchor:


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 Android Apps by using IDAnchor. 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 IDAnchor

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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