How to Use an In-App Generated Seed Encryption Key in Android & iOS Apps

This Knowledge Base article summarizes the steps needed to provide a seed to generate encryption keys used by a mobile app for Appdome data at rest encryption.

What is an In-App Generated Seed?

An external seed for data-at-rest encryption is a number used to initialize a pseudo or random number generator, which creates the encryption keys utilized in data-at-rest encryption for mobile apps.

About External Seed for Data at Rest Encryption

With In-App Generated Seed for Data at Rest Encryption, developers or other mobility, security, or IT professionals can seed Appdome’s data at rest capabilities with an external secret derived from a backend server or from user input. This results in the derivation of a unique encryption key. The Data at Rest encryption key will be seeded via Appdome Input Threat-Events. With Input-Events™, you can use Appdome to handle in-app events and seed your key internally.

Prerequisites for In-App Generated Seed For Data at Rest Encryption

• Appdome account
• Appdome-DEV access
• Mobile App (.ipa for iOS, or .apk or .aab for Android)
• Signing Credentials (e.g., signing certificates and provisioning profile)
• Xcode software
• Android Studio software
• Visual Studio with tools for Maui, Xamarin (for Maui, Xamarin Apps)
• Cordova mobile development framework (for Cordova Apps)

There are some app developer steps you can take with apps to set an external seed to receive the key that is being sent for Data-at-Rest encryption.

Using Input Threat-Events™ for In-App Generated Seed in Mobile Apps

Use the following code to input the external seed for the key with Data at Rest Encryption for iOS and Android.

Note: Input Threat Events are unavailable for multi-platform frameworks such as React Native, Flutter, and Cardova. If you are using these coding languages, it is recommended that you build a bridge class that acts as an intermediary between the framework and the mobile native API.

Java

// Define placeholders for key and value
String key = "Seed";
String value = "<SECRET_VALUE_PLACEHOLDER>";
 
// Create a new intent with the action "SeedDataAtRest"

Intent intent = new Intent("SeedDataAtRest");
 
// Create a bundle to hold the data

Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
 
// Add the key-value pair to the bundle

bundle.putString(key, value);
 
// Attach the bundle to the intent

intent.putExtras(bundle);
 
// Get the application's context

Context context = getApplicationContext();
 
// Set the package name for the intent

intent.setPackage(context.getPackageName());
 
// Send the broadcast with the intent

context.sendBroadcast(intent);

Kotlin

val key = KEY_PLACEHOLDER>"
val value = "<SECRET_VALUE_PLACEHOLDER>"
val intent = Intent("SeedDataAtRest")
val bundle = Bundle()

bundle.putString(key, value)
intent.putExtras(bundle)
val context = applicationContext
intent.`package` = context.packageName

// Sending information back to Appdome
context.sendBroadcast(intent)

Xamarin/MAUI Android – C#

string key = "<KEY_PLACEHOLDER>";
string value = "<SECRET_VALUE_PLACEHOLDER>";

// Create a new intent with the action "SeedDataAtRest"
Intent intent = new Intent("SeedDataAtRest");

// Create a bundle to hold the data
Bundle bundle = new Bundle();

// Add the key-value pair to the bundle
bundle.PutString(key, value);

// Attach the bundle to the intent
intent.PutExtras(bundle);

// Set the package name for the intent
intent.SetPackage(ApplicationContext.PackageName);

// Send the broadcast with the intent
ApplicationContext.SendBroadcast(intent);

Objective-C

NSString *key = @;KEY_PLACEHOLDER>";
NSString *value = @"<VALUE_PLACEHOLDER>";
NSDictionary *userInfo = @{key: value};

// Sending information back to Appdome
[[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] postNotificationName:@"SeedDataAtRest"
                                                    object:nil
                                                  userInfo:userInfo];

Swift

let key = "<KEY_PLACEHOLDER>"
let value = "<VALUE_PLACEHOLDER>"
let userInfo = [key: value]

// Sending information back to Appdome
NotificationCenter.default.post(name: Notification.Name("SeedDataAtRest"),
                                object: nil,
                                userInfo: userInfo)

Xamarin/MAUI iOS -C#

String key = "<KEY_PLACEHOLDER>";
String value = "<VALUE_PLACEHOLDER>";

// Create a dictionary to hold the data
NSDictionary userInfo = new NSDictionary(key, value);

// Post a notification with the data
NSNotificationCenter.DefaultCenter.PostNotificationName("SeedDataAtRest", null, userInfo);

How to 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.