How to Detect Teleportation in Android & iOS Mobile Apps

Last updated April 7, 2024 by Appdome

Learn to Detect Teleportation in Mobile apps, in mobile CI/CD with a Data-Driven DevSecOps™ build system.

What is the Detect Teleportation Feature?

Detect Teleportation is designed to identify and mitigate the risks associated with inaccurate location data in mobile devices. This feature scrutinizes multiple signals to ascertain the precision of location information, distinguishing genuine location changes from injected or fake ones. By leveraging advanced algorithms, Detect Teleportation examines the authenticity of location data provided by the operating system, ensuring that the transitions from point A to point B are humanly reasonable and feasible within the given timeframe.

How Does Detect Teleportation Protect Mobile Apps?

The Detect Teleportation feature safeguards against location spoofing, a technique in which false geographical data is injected, potentially compromising app functionality and user trust. By verifying whether transitions between geographical points are realistic within the elapsed time, it filters out manipulated location data. This level of scrutiny is crucial for apps that depend on accurate location data to deliver essential services such as navigation, personalized recommendations, and proximity-based functionalities.

Prerequisites for Using Detect Teleportation:

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

Detect Teleportation on Mobile apps using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending Mobile Apps that Detect Teleportation without an SDK or gateway:

  1. Upload the Mobile App to Appdome.

    1. Upload an app to Appdome’s Mobile App Security Build System

    2. Upload Method: Appdome Console or DEV-API
    3. Mobile App Formats: .ipa for iOS, or .apk or .aab for Android
    4. Detect Teleportation Compatible With: Obj-C, C+, Java, JS, C#, C++, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, and more
  2. Build the feature: Detect Teleportation.

    1. Building Detect Teleportation by using Appdome’s DEV-API:

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

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Detect Teleportation feature
        Note: Naming the Fusion Set to correspond to the protection(s) selected is for illustration purposes only (not required).

      3. Follow the steps in Sections 2.2.1-2.2.2 of this article, Building the Detect Teleportation feature via Appdome Console, to add the Detect Teleportation feature to this Fusion Set.

      4. Open the Fusion Set Detail Summary by clicking the “...” symbol on the far-right corner of the Fusion Set, as shown in Figure 1 above, and get the Fusion Set ID from the Fusion Set Detail Summary (as shown below): fusion Set Detail Summary image

        Figure 2: Fusion Set Detail Summary
        Note: Annotating the Fusion Set to identify the protection(s) selected is optional only (not mandatory).

      5. Follow the instructions below to use the Fusion Set ID inside any standard mobile DevOps or CI/CD toolkit like Bitrise, App Center, Jenkins, Travis, Team City, Cirlce CI or other system:
        1. Build an API for the app – for instructions, see the tasks under Appdome API Reference Guide
        2. Look for sample APIs in Appdome’s GitHub Repository
    2. Building the Detect Teleportation feature via Appdome Console

      To build the Detect Teleportation protection by using Appdome Console, follow the instructions below.

      1. Where: Inside the Appdome Console, go to Build > Geo Compliance Tab > Geo Compliance section.
      2. When you select the Detect Teleportation you'll notice that your Fusion Set you created in step 2.1.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Detect Teleportation

        Fusion Set applied Detect Teleportation

        Figure 4: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Detect Teleportation protection

      3. Select the Threat-Event™ in-app mobile Threat Defense and Intelligence policy for Detect Teleportation:
        1. Threat-Events™ OFF > In-App Defense

          If the Threat-Events™ setting is cleared (not selected). Appdome will detect and defend the user and app by enforcing Detect Teleportation.

        2. Threat-Events™ ON > In-App Detection

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects impossible or non-human changes in location 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 Detect Teleportation Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

        3. Threat-Events™ ON > In-App Defense

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects and defends against Teleportation (same as Appdome Enforce) and passes Appdome’s Threat-Event™ attack intelligence the app’s business logic for processing. For more information on consuming and using Appdome Threat-Events™ in the app, see section Using Threat-Events™ for Detect Teleportation Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

      4. Click Build My App at the bottom of the Build Workflow (shown in Figure 3).
    Congratulations!  The Detect Teleportation protection is now added to the mobile app

Using Threat-Events™ for Teleportation Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps

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

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

Threat-Event™ Elements Detect Teleportation Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Detect Teleportation
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 Detecting Teleportation Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME TeleportationDetected
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF 6801
Threat-Event SCORE
currentThreatEventScore Current Threat-Event score
threatEventsScore Total Threat-events score
Threat-Event Context Keys
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
deviceID Current device ID
reasonCode Reason code of the occured event
buildDate Appdome fusion date of the current application
devicePlatform OS name of the current device
carrierName Carrier name of the current device
updatedOSVersion Is the OS version up to date
deviceBrand Brand of the device
deviceBoard Board of the device
buildUser Build user
buildHost Build host
sdkVersion Sdk version
timeZone Time zone
deviceFaceDown Is the device face down
locationLong Location longitude conditioned by location permission
locationLat Location latitude conditioned by location permission
locationState Location state conditioned by location permission
wifiSsid Wifi SSID
wifiSsidPermissionStatus Wifi SSID permission status

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 Teleportation is detected.

The following is a code sample for native Mobile apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Detect Teleportation:


Using Appdome, there are no development or coding prerequisites to build secured Mobile Apps by using Detect Teleportation. 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 Detect Teleportation

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 to Detect Fake Location in iOS Apps

How to Detect Fake Location in Android Apps

How to Implement VPN Detection for Android & iOS Apps

How to Protect Android & iOS Apps Against Fake GPS Apps

If you have any questions, please send them our way at support.appdome.com or via the chat window on the Appdome platform.

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