How to Prevent iOS Apps from Running on Emulators

Last updated April 7, 2024 by Appdome

This Knowledge Base article describes how to use Appdome’s AI/ML in your CI/CD pipeline to continuously deliver plugins that Prevent Emulators in iOS apps.

What are Emulators?

Emulators are virtualized tools used to run software tests on mobile apps inside flexible, software-defined environments. They allow someone to simulate, model, and mimic mobile application software & hardware behavior, including how apps interact with the mobile operating system and other systems. Emulators create an operating environment that looks and functions much like the mobile device model, with many of the capabilities of an actual Android device. For example, emulators can mimic incoming phone calls and text messages, location services, various network speeds, device orientation/rotation, and different hardware sensors. Like most mobile dev tools, emulators have good uses and bad uses. For example, QA teams use these tools to test new mobile features and app performance. Developers use emulators because it may be impractical and costly to obtain real devices for testing (especially given the hundreds of types of mobile phones on the market today across Android and iOS). However, hackers also use emulators for malicious purposes as part of dynamic analysis efforts. In this effort, they run mobile apps in their own controlled environment to learn how the app behaves and interacts with other components or systems while it’s running.

Why Prevent iOS Apps from Running on Emulators?

Hackers use emulators to run mobile apps within their own controlled environment so they can mimic, observe, and study how a mobile app functions and behaves while the app is running. Why? Because knowing how a mobile app behaves helps hackers build more effective attacks and attack methods.

For example, using emulators, hackers can observe how an app interacts with the mobile operating system or study the methods and sequence by which the app connects to and authenticates with its backend. Emulators can also be used to observe how an application app reads/writes to the filesystem (for instance, to learn if weak encryption is used or no encryption at all). In addition, hackers also use emulators to perform custom modifications to the OS behavior, like modifying OS system calls or libraries, sending fake signals from the app, removing security controls, and more. For example, hackers use emulators to steal in-app purchases via ROM-hacking (where they modify the Read-Only-Memory of a mobile game). Fraudsters also use them to spoof device identities to trick fraud detection systems, among many more use cases. These are just a few of the many ways hackers use emulators in their attack efforts. Using emulators also means hackers are not limited by the computational capabilities of the physical device and can run through their attack vector testing much faster by using multiple instances of the app in parallel.

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's Prevent Running on Emulators Plugins:

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

How to Implement Prevent Emulators in iOS Apps Using Appdome

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

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

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Prevent Running on Emulators feature

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

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

        Fusion Set applied Prevent Running on Emulators

        Figure 2: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Prevent Running on 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 Prevent Running on Emulators feature to your security template.

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

        Figure 4: Selecting Prevent 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 Prevent Running on 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 Emulators

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

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

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

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

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

Threat-Event™ Elements Prevent Emulators Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Prevent Running on 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 Preventing 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 Emulators is detected.


The following is a code sample for native iOS apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Prevent Running on 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 iOS Apps by using Prevent Running on 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 Prevent Running on 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!

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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