How to Prevent Viewing Internal IP Addresses

Learn to Prevent Viewing internal IP addresses in Mobile apps, in mobile CI/CD with a Data-Driven DevSecOps™ build system.

What is IP Address Visibility?

IP address visibility is important when you are auditing the IP addresses your application uses. Auditing IP addresses is useful in several cases. For example, large companies with subsidiaries and partnerships, may use auditing to scan your IP address ranges with the purpose of identifying which ranges belong to a core business, subsidiaries, or joint ventures.

When Should I Enable IP Address Visibility?

When an application establishes a connection Appdome may generate an internal IP address for the app and then translate the IP address back to the actual address when traffic leaves the app (a form of Network Address Translation or NAT). Building an app with Appdome IP address visibility into the app ensures that the actual IP address of the destinations are reported to the app.

Prerequisites to Using IP Address Visibility:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Prevent Viewing internal IP addresses , you’ll need:

• Appdome account (create a free Appdome account here)
• A license for IP Address Visibility
• Mobile App (.ipa For iOS device or .apk or .aab For Mobile)
• Signing Credentials (see Signing Secure Android apps and Signing Secure iOS apps)

Prevent Viewing internal IP addresses on Mobile apps using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending Mobile Apps that Prevent Viewing internal IP addresses 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 device or .apk or .aab
   4. IP Address Visibility Compatible With: Obj-C, C+, Java, JS, C#, C++, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, and more

2. Build the feature: IP Address Visibility.

   1. Building IP Address Visibility by using Appdome’s DEV-API:

      1. Create and name the Fusion Set (security template) that will contain the IP Address Visibility feature as shown below:
      

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

      2. Follow the steps in Sections 2.2.1-2.2.2 of this article, Building the IP Address Visibility feature via Appdome Console, to add the IP Address Visibility feature to this Fusion Set.

      3. 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):

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

      4. 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 IP Address Visibility feature via Appdome Console

      To build the IP Address Visibility protection by using Appdome Console, follow the instructions below.

      1. Where: Inside the Appdome Console, go to Build > Security Tab > Secure Communication section
      2. How: Toggle (turn ON) IP Address Visibility, as shown below.
         If needed, Customize the Threat Notification to be displayed to the mobile end-user in a standard OS dialog notification when Appdome Prevents Viewing internal IP addresses.

         Figure 3: Prevent Viewing internal IP addresses option
         Note: The App Compromise Notification contains an easy to follow default remediation path for the mobile app end user. You can customize this message as required to achieve brand specific support, workflow or other messaging.

      3. When you select the IP Address Visibility you'll notice that your Fusion Set you created in step 2.1.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains IP Address Visibility

         

         Figure 4: Fusion Set that displays the newly added IP Address Visibility protection

      4. Click Build My App at the bottom of the Build Workflow (shown in Figure 3).

   Congratulations!  The IP Address Visibility protection is now added to the mobile app

3. Certify the IP Address Visibility feature in Mobile Apps.

   After building IP Address Visibility, Appdome generates a Certified Secure™ certificate to guarantee that the IP Address Visibility protection has been added and is protecting the app. To verify that the IP Address Visibility protection has been added to the mobile app, locate the protection in the Certified Secure™ certificate as shown below:

   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 IP Address Visibility has been added to each Mobile app. Certified Secure provides instant and in-line DevSecOps compliance certification that IP Address Visibility and other mobile app security features are in each build of the mobile app