How to Detect iOS Emulators Using AI

Last updated February 6, 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 iOS Emulators in iOS apps.

What are iOS Emulators?

iOS emulators are virtual tools that simulate iOS device environments for testing purposes, allowing developers to evaluate app behavior without physical devices. While valuable for development and QA, attackers exploit emulators to reverse engineer apps, extract secrets, bypass security measures, and manipulate app behavior. Emulators allow hackers to observe authentication flows, intercept backend communications, and analyze file encryption. By operating in controlled environments, attackers can accelerate dynamic analysis, remove security controls, and steal in-app purchases. Blocking apps from running in emulators is essential for safeguarding sensitive data, preventing fraud, and maintaining compliance with standards like PCI DSS for secure financial transactions.

How Appdome Protects Against iOS Emulators?

Appdome’s dynamic Detect iOS Emulators plugin identifies and blocks apps from running in simulated iOS environments by detecting emulator-specific behaviors, such as modified system calls, fake hardware signals, or altered libraries. The plugin monitors for anomalies in-app interactions with the iOS operating system, including abnormal backend authentication flows, filesystem read/write activities, and manipulated OS behavior. It also prevents attackers from running multiple instances in parallel to accelerate attack testing. By blocking emulators, Appdome ensures apps cannot be reverse-engineered, secrets cannot be extracted, and in-app purchases cannot be bypassed, safeguarding sensitive data and preventing fraud without additional developer effort. Mobile developers can use Appdome’s Threat-Events™ to gather data on emulator events and create a customized user experience when such threats are detected, enhancing both security and user awareness.

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's Detect iOS Emulators Plugins:

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

How to Implement Detect iOS Emulators in iOS Apps Using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending iOS Apps that Detect iOS Emulators 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. iOS Formats: .ipa
    3. Detect iOS Emulators is compatible with: Obj-C, Java, Swift, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, Cordova and other iOS apps.
  2. Select the defense: Detect iOS Emulators.

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

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Detect iOS Emulators feature

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

      3. When you select the Detect iOS Emulators you'll notice that the Fusion Set you created in step 2.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Detect iOS Emulators.

        Fusion Set applied Detect iOS Emulators

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

      1. Navigate to Build > Security tab > ONEShield™ section in the Appdome Console.
      2. Toggle On > Detect iOS Emulators.
        Detect iOS Emulators option

        Figure 4: Selecting Detect iOS Emulators

        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 iOS Emulators:
        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 iOS Emulators

        4. Detect iOS Emulators Threat Code™. Appdome uses AI/ML to generate a unique code each time Detect iOS Emulators 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 iOS Emulators protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the Detect iOS Emulators feature in iOS Apps

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

Using Threat-Events™ for iOS Emulators Intelligence and Control in iOS Apps

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

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for iOS Emulators are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Detect iOS Emulators Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Detect iOS Emulators
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 Detecting iOS Emulators Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME EmulatorFound
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF 7215
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.
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
updatedOSVersion Is the OS version up to date
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), iOS developers can get detailed attack intelligence and granular defense control in iOS applications and create amazing user experiences for all mobile end users when iOS Emulators is detected.


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


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 iOS Emulators. 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 iOS Emulators

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!

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