Threat-Events™, In-App Threat Intelligence in React Native Apps

Last updated November 9, 2023 by Appdome

This knowledge base article shows you how easy it is to use Appdome Threat-Events™ to get in-app threat intelligence in React Native Apps and control the user experience in your React Native Apps when mobile attacks occur.

What are Threat-Events?

Appdome Threat-Events is a powerful threat-intelligence framework for Android & iOS apps, which is comprised of three elements: (1) a Threat-Event, (2) the data from each Threat-Event, and (3) the Threat-Score™.

With Threat-Events, mobile developers can register, listen to, and consume real-time attack and threat data from Appdome’s mobile app security, anti-fraud, mobile anti-bot, and other protections within their mobile applications. This allows them to (1) ensure that mobile application workflows are aware of attacks and threats, (2) customize business logic and user experience based on the user’s risk profile and/or each attack or threat presented, and (3) pass the threat data to other record systems, such as app servers, mobile fraud analysis systems, SIEMs, and other data collection points.

The purpose of Threat-Events is to enable Android and iOS applications to adapt and respond to mobile app attacks and threats in real-time. Using Threat-Events will ensure you keep users, data, and transactions safe.

Mobile Application Threat-Events vs. Threat-Scores

Appdome Threat-Events can be used as a stand-alone implementation in React Native Apps, or in combination with Threat-Scores. Threat-Events provide the mobile developer with the in-app notification of each attack or threat, as well as the metadata associated with the attack. Threat-Scores provide the mobile developer with the Threat-Event event score and the combined (aggregate) mobile end-user risk at the time of the notification.

The figure below shows where you can find Threat-Events and Threat-Scores for each of the runtime mobile app security, anti-fraud, anti-malware, mobile antibot, and other protections available on Appdome:

55

To enable Threat-Events with any runtime protection, select the check box next to Threat-Events for that feature. Doing so will enable (turn ON) Threat-Events for that feature. To enable Threat-Scores for any runtime protection, click the up/down arrow associated with Threat-Scores to assign a specific score to each protection.
Threat-Scores must have a value greater than zero (0) and less than a thousand (1,000).

Threat-Events and Threat-Scores can be used with or in place of server-based mobile anti-fraud solutions.

Prerequisites for Using Threat-Events with React Native Apps

Here’s what you need to use Threat-Events with React Native Apps.

Code Snippet Required for Using Threat-Events with React Native Apps

Before consuming Threat-Events or Threat-Scores in your React Native Apps, confirm that the following conditions are met:

  • Threat-Events and/or Threat-Scores have been enabled (turned ON) for the specific protection
  • You are using the correct identifiers for the Threat-Events for each protection.
    You can find the specific identifiers for each Threat-Event and Threat-Score in the knowledge base article associated with each protection.

Using Threat-Events™ and Threat-Scores™ in React Native Apps is different between iOS and Android.

Below is the code snippet required for using Threat-Events™ and Threat-Scores™ in iOS React Native Apps

  1. Open the iOS project in Xcode (resides in IOS folder under the root directory of the project).
  2. Add an ADThreatEvents class and an ADThreatEvents header.
  3. Make the ADThreatEvents class inherit from RCTEventEmitter and implements RCTBridgeModule.
    The ADThreatEvents header should contain the following code:

    
    #ifndef ADThreatEvents_h
    #define ADThreatEvents_h 
    
    #import "React/RCTBridgeModule.h"
    #import <React/RCTEventEmitter.h>
    
    @interface ADThreatEvents : RCTEventEmitter 
    @property (strong) NSMutableArray *supportedEventsArray; 
    @end 
    
    #endif/* ADThreatEvents_h */
    
  4. Add the following code to ADThreatEvents class
    
    #import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
    #import "ADThreatEvents.h"
    #import "React/RCTBridgeModule.h"
    
    @implementation ADThreatEvents
    RCT_EXPORT_MODULE()
    // This method can be called from js to register to event
    RCT_EXPORT_METHOD(registerForThreatEvent:(NSString *)name ) {
        [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(handleNotification:) name:name object:nil];
        if (!self.supportedEventsArray) {
            self.supportedEventsArray = [NSMutableArray array];
        }
        [self.supportedEventsArray addObject:name];
    }
    
    // This method is needed to return all the events that will be called using sendEventWithName
    - (NSArray *)supportedEvents
    {
        return self.supportedEventsArray;
    }
    
    // This method will send notification to js
    - (void)handleNotification:(NSNotification *)notification
    { 
        [self sendEventWithName:notification.name body:notification.userInfo];
    }
    @end
    
    To register for Threat-Events, see the section Threat-Event Registration for iOS and Android React Native Apps.

Below is the code snippet required for using Threat-Events™ and Threat-Scores™ in Android React Native Apps:

      1. Open the Android project in Android Studio (it resides in the Android folder under the root directory).
        Add ADThreatEvents class with the following code:

        
        import android.content.BroadcastReceiver;
        import android.content.Context;
        import android.content.Intent;
        import android.content.IntentFilter;
        import android.os.Bundle;
        import android.support.v4.content.LocalBroadcastManager;
        import com.facebook.react.bridge.Arguments;
        import com.facebook.react.bridge.ReactApplicationContext;
        import com.facebook.react.bridge.ReactContextBaseJavaModule;
        import com.facebook.react.bridge.ReactMethod;
        import com.facebook.react.bridge.ReadableMap;
        import com.facebook.react.bridge.WritableMap;
        import com.facebook.react.modules.core.DeviceEventManagerModule;
        
        import javax.annotation.Nonnull;
        
        public class ADThreatEvents extends ReactContextBaseJavaModule {
        
            public ADThreatEvents(@Nonnull ReactApplicationContext reactContext) {
                super(reactContext);
            }
        
            @Nonnull
            @Override
            public String getName() {
                return "ADThreatEvents";
            }
        
            @ReactMethod
            public void registerForThreatEvent(String action) {
                IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter(action);
        
                LocalBroadcastManager.getInstance(getReactApplicationContext()).registerReceiver(new BroadcastReceiver() {
                    @Override
                    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
                        handleNotification(intent);
                    }
                }, filter);
            }
        
            private void handleNotification(Intent intent) {
                WritableMap extras = Arguments.fromBundle(intent.getExtras());
                this.getReactApplicationContext().getJSModule(DeviceEventManagerModule.RCTDeviceEventEmitter.class).emit(intent.getAction(), extras);
            }
        
            @ReactMethod
            public void postThreatEvent(String action, ReadableMap userInfo) {
                Intent intent = new Intent(action);
                if (userInfo != null) {
                    Bundle bundle = Arguments.toBundle(userInfo);
                    intent.putExtras(bundle);
                }
                this.getReactApplicationContext().sendBroadcast(intent);
            }
        }
        
      2. Add ADThreatEventsPackage class with the following code:
        
        import com.facebook.react.ReactPackage;
        import com.facebook.react.bridge.NativeModule;
        import com.facebook.react.bridge.ReactApplicationContext;
        import com.facebook.react.uimanager.ViewManager;
        import java.util.ArrayList;
        import java.util.Collections;
        import java.util.List;
        import javax.annotation.Nonnull;
        
        public class ADThreatEventsPackage implements ReactPackage {
            @Nonnull
            @Override
            public List createNativeModules(@Nonnull ReactApplicationContext reactContext) {
                List modules = new ArrayList<>();
                modules.add(new ADThreatEvents(reactContext));
                return modules;
            }
        
            @Nonnull
            @Override
            public List createViewManagers(@Nonnull ReactApplicationContext reactContext) {
                return Collections.emptyList();
            }
        }
        
      3. Append the newly created ADThreatEventsPackage() class to getPackages method in MainApplication class.
        Here is an example of the MainApplication class code:

        
        import android.app.Application;
        import com.facebook.react.ReactApplication;
        import com.facebook.react.ReactNativeHost;
        import com.facebook.react.ReactPackage;
        import com.facebook.react.shell.MainReactPackage;
        import com.facebook.soloader.SoLoader;
        import java.util.Arrays;
        import java.util.List;
        
        public class MainApplication extends Application implements ReactApplication {
        
            private final ReactNativeHost mReactNativeHost = new ReactNativeHost(this) {
                @Override
                public boolean getUseDeveloperSupport() {
                return BuildConfig.DEBUG;
                }
        
                @Override
                protected List getPackages() {
                    return Arrays.asList(new MainReactPackage(), new ADThreatEventsPackage());
                }
        
                @Override
                protected String getJSMainModuleName() {
                    return "index";
                }
            };
        
            @Override
            public ReactNativeHost getReactNativeHost() {
                return mReactNativeHost;
            }
        
            @Override
            public void onCreate() {
                super.onCreate();
                SoLoader.init(this,/* native exopackage */ false);
            }
        }
        

        To register for Threat-Events, see the section Threat-Event Registration for iOS and Android React Native Apps.

 

Threat-Event Registration for iOS and Android React Native Apps

      1. Add NativeModules and NativeEventEmitter from react-native.
        1. Add the following code:
          
          const { ADThreatEvents } = NativeModules;
          const adThreatEvents = new NativeEventEmitter(ADThreatEvents);
          
        2. Add the following function:
          
          function registerToThreatEvent(action, callback) {
              NativeModules.ADThreatEvents.registerForThreatEvent(action);
              adThreatEvents.addListener(action, callback);
          }
          
      2. Register for a Threat-Events by calling registerToThreatEvent(action, callback) from JS.

Special Considerations for using Threat-Events with React Native Apps

ReactNative does not provide an out-of-the-box method to register to receive broadcasts or NSNotifications from javascript.

To enable receiving these broadcasts, the following operations should be performed within the ReactNative app:

  1. Implement Java\Kotlin class that registers a BroadcastReceiver or Objective-C class, depending on the platform, to add a OS specific handler that will receive a ThreatEvent.

  2. Declare the class that registers a ThreatEvent receiver as a package, and register this package to make it accessible from ReactNative’s Webview by using JavaScript.

  3. Register handlers for all protections configured as ThreatEvent from Java Script.

Compatibility with Android 14

Following the security update introduced in Android 14 (API level 34), apps targeting Android 14 are required to explicitly specify whether a registered receiver should be exported to all other apps on the device. When implementing Threat Events for React Native it is recommended to use LocalBroadcastManager as shown in the above code snippet. This API does not require the receiver export state to be provided during receiver registration; therefore, no significant changes are needed to ensure compatibility with Android 14 for consuming Threat Event in React Native apps.

Meta-Data for Mobile Application Threat-Events and Threat-Scores

Below is the list of metadata that can be associated with each mobile application Threat-Event and Threat-Score in React Native Apps.

Threat-Event Context Keys
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
deviceID Current device ID
reasonCode Reason code of the occured event
buildDate Appdome fusion date of the current application
devicePlatform OS name of the current device
carrierName Carrier name of the current device
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 long
locationLat Location lat
locationState Location state
wifiSsid Wifi SSID
wifiSsidPermissionStatus Wifi SSID permission status

Some or all of the meta-data for each mobile application Threat-Event and Threat-Score can be consumed in React Native Apps at the discretion of the mobile developer and used, in combination with other mobile application data, to adapt the business logic or user experience when one or more attacks or threats are present.

Using Conditional Enforcement for Mobile Application Threat-Events and Threat-Scores

Conditional Enforcement is an extension to Appdome’s mobile application Threat-Event framework. By using conditional enforcement, developers can control when Appdome enforcement of each mobile application protection takes place or invoke backup, failsafe, and enforcement to any in-app enforcement used by the mobile developer.
For more information on using conditional enforcement with your Threat-Event implementation, please contact support@appdome.com.

Verifying Threat-Events in React Native Apps

After you have implemented the required Threat-Event code in your React Native Apps, you can confirm that your Threat-Event implementation(s) is properly recognized by the Appdome protections in the React Native Apps. To do that, review the Certified Secure™ DevSecOps certificate for your build on Appdome.

In the Certified Secure DevSecOps certificate, a correct implementation of Threat-Events in your mobile application looks as seen below.

Ios Android Cert 2 1000px

In the Certified Secure DevSecOps certificate, an incorrect implementation of Threat-Events in your mobile application looks as seen below.

Threat Events Wrong Implementation Ios Android

For information on how to view and/or retrieve the Certified Secure DevSecOps certification for your mobile application on Appdome, please visit the knowledge base article Using Certified Secure™ Android & iOS Apps Build Certification in DevOps CI/CD

Questions Using Threat-Events™ in React Native Apps?

If you have specific questions about implementing Threat-Events or Threat-Scores in React Native Apps, fill out the inquiry form on the right-hand side of this knowledge base article or contact support@appdome.com. That is it – Enjoy Appdome with Threat-Events™ in your app!

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