How to Detect App Mods in Mobile Apps

Last updated January 29, 2025 by Appdome

This Knowledge Base article describes how to use Appdome’s AI/ML in your CI/CD pipeline to continuously deliver plugins that Detect App Mods in Mobile apps.

What are App Mods?

App Mods, or “App Modifications,” refer to unauthorized changes made to legitimate mobile applications. These modifications can include injecting malicious code, bypassing in-app security measures, removing ads, enabling premium features without payment, or altering app behavior for malicious purposes. While some users may view these modifications as harmless or appealing, App Mods pose significant security, financial, and reputational risks. They compromise app integrity by exposing vulnerabilities, enabling data breaches, and potentially introducing malware into the app ecosystem. Furthermore, App Mods can lead to financial losses through fraud or piracy, harm the user experience, and damage brand reputation.

Detecting and preventing App Mods is essential to safeguard mobile apps from unauthorized changes that could expose users and businesses to significant risks. By protecting app functionality, preventing malware introduction, and maintaining compliance with regulations, detecting App Mods ensures app integrity and a secure, trustworthy experience for end users. This approach helps developers preserve revenue streams, avoid intellectual property theft, and maintain the health of the app ecosystem.

How Does Appdome Detect and Prevent App Mods?

Appdome uses a dynamic Detect App Mods plugin to identify unauthorized modifications to Android and iOS apps. This plugin monitors and validates the app’s integrity during runtime, detecting any attempts to alter the app’s code, bypass in-app security features, or inject malicious elements. It prevents modded apps from launching or functioning, preserving the original app’s behavior and protecting its ecosystem.

By leveraging Appdome’s automated no-code platform, developers can implement Detect App Mods protections seamlessly into their CI/CD workflows, ensuring continuous protection without manual coding or disruptions to their development cycles.

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's Detect App Mods Plugins:

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

How to Implement Detect App Mods in Mobile Apps Using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these simple steps to create self-defending Mobile Apps that Detect App Mods 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. Mobile App Formats: .ipa for iOS, or .apk or .aab for Android
    3. Detect App Mods is compatible with: Obj-C, Java, JS, C#, C++, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, and more.
  2. Select the defense: Detect App Mods.

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

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Detect App Mods feature

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

      3. When you enable App Shielding you'll notice that the Fusion Set you created in step 2.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Detect App Mods.

        Fusion Set applied Detect App Mods

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

      1. Navigate to Build > Security tab > ONEShield™ section in the Appdome Console.
      2. Toggle On App Shielding > Detect App Mods.
        Note: The checkmark feature Detect App Mods is enabled by default, as shown below. Detect App Mods option

        Figure 4: Selecting Detect App Mods

        Note: The Appdome Platform displays the Mobile Operation Systems supported by each defense in real-time. For more details, see our OS Support Policy KB.

      3. Configure the User Experience Options for Detect App Mods:
        With Threat-Events™ OFF, Appdome provides several user experience options for mobile brands and developers.
        1. App Compromise Notification: Customize the pop-up or toast Appdome uses to notify the user when a threat is present while using the protected mobile app.
        2. Short message Option. This is available for mobile devices that allow a banner notification for security events.
        3. Localized Message Option. Allows Appdome users to support global languages in security notifications.

          Localized Message

          Figure 5: Default User Experience Options for Appdome’s App Mods

        4. Detect App Mods Threat Code™. Appdome uses AI/ML to generate a unique code each time Detect App Mods is triggered by an active threat on the mobile device. Use the code in Appdome Threat Resolution Center™ to help end users identify, find and resolve active threats on the personal mobile devices.
    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 Detect App Mods protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the Detect App Mods feature in Mobile Apps

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

    Figure 6: 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 Detect App Mods has been added to each Mobile app. Certified Secure provides instant and in-line DevSecOps compliance certification that Detect App Mods and other mobile app security features are in each build of the mobile app.

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

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

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for App Mods are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Detect App Mods Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Detect App Mods
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 x
Visible in ThreatScope™ x
Developer Parameters for Detecting App Mods Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF
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
failSafeEnforce Timed enforcement against the identified threat
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
buildDate Appdome fusion date of the current application
devicePlatform OS name of the current device
carrierName Carrier name of the current device. Only available for Android.
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
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), 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 App Mods are detected.


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


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 Apps by using Detect App Mods. 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 App Mods

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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