How to Block Cheat Engines from Hacking Android & iOS Apps

This Knowledge Base article describes 3 Easy Steps to Block Cheat Engines from Hacking Android & iOS Apps. Stop cheat engines from hacking mobile games. No Code, Zero Dev, No SDK.

What is Cheat Engines?

Cheat Engine is a memory scanning tool used to hack mobile games. It allows you to access data stored in your computer’s memory and make changes to that data. This allows you to change the information in a game, such as health, ammo, score, lives, and the number of things you have in your inventory. Cheat Engines comes with a built-in memory scanner, disassembler, debugger, hex editor, and dynamic code injector which makes it a super powerful tool for gamers to cheat in mobile games and for hackers to create game mods or more powerful versions of legitimate games.

Hackers all around the world try to hack almost any mobile game application to get hold of unlimited gold, coins, gems, etc. Sounds horrible right? Many apps today are tampered with, re-packaged, re-distributed, and modified at will by malicious parties looking to either re-use your unique advantage or harvest your users’ data by providing them with fake applications that look like yours.

Top 6 Ways hackers use Cheat Engines for cheating in mobile games:

1. Search/Discover specific game processes (for the purpose of attaching to the process then altering the process)
2. Scan memory to determine the specific values assigned to certain game values or metrics (so that you can alter those values to gain advantage)
3. Change in-game values or in-app purchases to the max allowed limit
4. Use pointers to find out which function writes a value
5. Use code injection to change game values or logic (eg:, change the direction of the value associated with ‘ammunition’ to increase whenever you fire your gun – instead of decreasing your ammo whenever you fire).
6. Slow down or speed up clock speed or in-game timers to gain a relative or absolute speed advantage

Appdome’s Block Common Cheat Engines automatically detects and blocks common cheat engines that leverage memory tracing techniques from modifying your application.

Appdome is a no-code mobile app security platform designed to add security features, like preventing cheat engines. This KB shows mobile developers, DevSec and security professionals how to use Appdome’s simple ‘click to build’ user interface to quickly and easily stop cheat engines from hacking mobile games.

Block Common Cheat Engines prevents malicious users from running ptrace against the fused app processes and preventing debuggers and malicious software from attaching it.

Appdome Anti-Reversing protection along with Anti-Tampering and Anti-Debugging defend any mobile app from being tampered and debugged by malicious attackers. Together with Appdome’s Block Common Cheat Engines, Appdome hardens this defense and prevents any cheats engine (or Cheat Engine app) and debuggers from running on the protected app and modifying its memory.

We hope you find this knowledge base useful and enjoy using Appdome!