How to Enforce Rate Limiting in MobileBOT™ Defense Using AI

Last updated July 9, 2026 by Appdome

This Knowledge Base article describes how to use Appdome’s AI in your CI/CD pipeline to continuously deliver plugins that Enforce Rate-Limit Connections in Mobile apps.

What is Rate Limiting?

Rate limiting is a security technique used to restrict the number of network requests or repeated actions, such as login attempts, made within a defined period of time. This helps mitigate bot-driven attacks, including brute force and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, which overwhelm systems through excessive requests.

Rate-Limit Connections, part of MobileBOT™ Defense, applies rate limiting directly within the mobile application. By identifying excessive request patterns at the application level, it helps protect user accounts, transactions, and application availability while reducing backend load and supporting anti-fraud and anti-automation strategies.

How Appdome Protects Mobile Apps with Rate-Limit Connections?

Appdome’s Rate-Limit Connections capability enforces configurable request rate limits directly within the protected mobile application. Developers can configure the maximum number of requests allowed within a defined time interval (for example, requests per second) for protected endpoints, helping prevent excessive requests and abusive behavior in real time. Because enforcement occurs within the application, it can detect bot-driven attacks such as brute force and DDoS even when attackers attempt to evade traditional server-side controls through techniques such as IP address rotation or username abuse. Developers can configure rate limits for multiple URLs and customize user notifications when limits are exceeded, helping maintain both application security and a seamless user experience.

Rate limits are enforced independently for each protected application instance. Each installed copy of the application maintains its own request counters, ensuring that rate limiting is evaluated per app instance rather than across all users or devices.

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's Rate-Limit Connections Plugins:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Enforce Rate-Limit Connections , you’ll need:

How to Implement Enforce Rate-Limit Connections in Mobile Apps Using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending Mobile Apps that Enforce Rate-Limit Connections 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. Rate-Limit Connections is compatible with: Obj-C, Java, JS, C#, C++, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, and more.
  2. Select the defense: Rate-Limit Connections.

      1. Create and name the Fusion Set (security template) that will contain the Rate-Limit Connections feature as shown below:
        fusion set that contains Rate-Limit Connections

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Rate-Limit Connections feature

      2. Follow the steps in Sections 2.2-2.2.2 of this article to add the Rate-Limit Connections feature to your Fusion Set via the Appdome Console.

      3. When you select the Rate-Limit Connections you'll notice that the Fusion Set you created in step 2.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Rate-Limit Connections.

        Fusion Set applied Rate-Limit Connections

        Figure 2: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Rate-Limit Connections 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 Rate-Limit Connections feature to your security template.

      1. Navigate to Build > API & Bot Protection tab > Trusted Application Identity section in the Appdome Console.
      2. Toggle On > Rate-Limit Connections.
        Rate-Limit Connections option

        Figure 4: Selecting Enforce Rate-Limit Connections

        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 Rate-Limit Connections:
        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 Rate-Limit Connections

        4. Rate-Limit Connections Threat Code™. Appdome uses AI to generate a unique code each time Rate-Limit Connections 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 Rate-Limit Connections protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the Rate-Limit Connections feature in Mobile Apps

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

Using Threat-Events™ for Rate-Limit Connections Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps

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

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for Rate-Limit Connections are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Enforce Rate-Limit Connections Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Rate-Limit Connections
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 Enforcing Rate-Limit Connections Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME MobileBotDefenseRateLimitReached
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF 6945
Threat-Event SCORE
currentThreatEventScore Current Threat-Event score
threatEventsScore Total Threat-events score
Threat-Event Context Keys
Timestamp The exact time the threat event was triggered, recorded in milliseconds since epoch
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. Only available for Android devices.
deviceID Current device ID
reasonCode Reason code of the occurred event
deviceBrand Brand of the device
deviceBoard Board of the device
buildUser Build user
buildHost Build host
sdkVersion Sdk version
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 Rate-Limit Connections is detected.


The following is a code sample for native Mobile apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Rate-Limit Connections:


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 Mobile Apps by using Rate-Limit Connections. 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 Rate-Limit Connections

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 Use Appdome MobileBOT™ Defense

How to Use Session Risk in Mobile Bot Defense

How to use MobileBOT Source™ with Mobile Bot Defense

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.

Want a Demo?

API & Bot Defense

GilWe're here to help
We'll get back to you in 24 hours to schedule your demo.

Search Appdome Solutions

Search
The Rise Of Mobile Enterprise Security Blog

The Rise of Mobile Enterprise Security

Mobile Enterprise Security is emerging as a new category that brings together Mobile App Security, Mobile Threat Defense, and Mobile App Management to establish trust across applications, identities, users, devices, and business processes. Learn why traditional mobile security categories are converging and what that means for modern enterprises.

Q&A with Jan Sysmans: The Biggest Challenges Facing Mobile App Security Today

Q&A with Jan Sysmans: The Biggest Challenges Facing Mobile App Security Today

Mobile app security has become a moving target. We sat down with Appdome’s Senior Director of Customer Success, Jan Sysmans, to discuss the realities mobile brands face today—from maintaining protections over time to identifying the blind spots many organizations don’t realize they have.

How B2b App Developers Secure Apps In The Agentic Age

How B2B App Developers Secure Apps In the Agentic Age

When Enterprise Apps Became Targets

For years, enterprise mobile applications occupied a different place in the threat landscape than consumer applications.
The most sophisticated mobile attacks typically targeted banks, payment…