How to Prevent Session Replay Attacks in Android & iOS Apps

Last updated June 2, 2024 by Appdome

Learn to Prevent Session Replay Attack in Mobile apps, in mobile CI/CD with a Data-Driven DevSecOps™ build system.

What is a Session Replay Attack?

Mobile apps often store authentication information, credentials, tokens, or other artifacts to maintain a state and improve the user experience. It’s important to take measures to protect this valuable information because stale sessions can also be reused and reclaimed by hackers and used in their attacks. And many times such replay (reuse) of sessions may go unnoticed for months or longer.

How Does Appdome Prevent Session Replay Attack in Mobile Apps?

Appdome detects and prohibits session replay attacks by reclaiming SessionIDs for stale TLS sessions so that hackers cannot reuse them in their attacks.

Prerequisites for Using Session Replay Attack:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Prevent Session Replay Attack , you’ll need:

Prevent Session Replay Attack on Mobile apps using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these simple steps to create self-defending Mobile Apps that Prevent Session Replay Attack 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. Session Replay Attack Compatible With: Obj-C, Java, JS, C#, C++, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, and more
  2. Build the feature: Session Replay Attack.

    1. Building Session Replay Attack by using Appdome’s DEV-API:

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

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Session Replay Attack 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 Session Replay Attack feature via Appdome Console, to add the Session Replay Attack 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. Copy 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, Circle 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 Session Replay Attack feature via Appdome Console

      To build the Session Replay Attack protection by using Appdome Console, follow the instructions below.

      1. Where: Inside the Appdome Console, go to Build > Security Tab > Secure Communication section.
      2. When you enable Prevent Session Replay Attack you'll notice that your Fusion Set you created in step 2.1.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Session Replay Attack

        Fusion Set applied Session Replay Attack

        Figure 4: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Session Replay Attack protection

      3. Click Build My App at the bottom of the Build Workflow (shown in Figure 3).
    Congratulations!  The Session Replay Attack protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the Session Replay Attack feature in Mobile Apps.

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

Using Threat-Events™ for Session Replay Attack Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps

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

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for Session Replay Attack are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Prevent Session Replay Attack Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Session Replay Attack
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 Preventing Session Replay Attack Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME SslCertificateValidationFailed
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF 6500
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
host The host that failed certificate validation
DeveventDetailedErrorMessage Error message
extendedMessageText Extended message
certificateCN Certificate common name
certificateSHA1 Certificate SHA1

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 Session Replay Attack is detected.

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


Using Appdome, there are no development or coding prerequisites to build secured Mobile Apps by using Session Replay Attack. 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 Session Replay Attack

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:

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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