Enabling Personal Anti-Virus Proxies in Mobile Apps

Last updated October 9, 2024 by Appdome

Learn to Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies in Mobile apps, in mobile CI/CD with a Data-Driven DevSecOps™ build system.

What are Anti-Virus Proxies?

Anti-virus proxies are intermediary services that provide security functions between a client’s device and the internet. They inspect web traffic for malicious content, such as viruses, malware, and other cyber threats, before allowing access to or from a network. These proxies can block harmful downloads, filter out dangerous websites, and provide detailed analysis and logging of security threats. By operating as a barrier, anti-virus proxies help to protect end-user devices and internal networks from external security risks.

How Does Appdome's "Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies" Feature Work?

Appdome’s “Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies” is an essential feature designed to enhance mobile app security by enabling the use of personal anti-virus proxies while still providing Deep Proxy Detection and Malicious Proxy Detection to perform deep inspection of proxies and proxying techniques, including header manipulation and redirects.

This feature was developed to address scenarios where benign proxies, such as those set up by Norton 360 for security purposes, are mistakenly identified as risks. By incorporating a sophisticated detection mechanism, Appdome’s feature allows these personal anti-virus proxies to function without interference, thereby supporting users’ existing security measures.

When activated, the feature analyzes the characteristics of each proxy connection. It identifies proxies that only transmit encrypted data and do not compromise the SSL/TLS security layer, categorizing them as non-malicious. This selective detection ensures that only proxies suspected of performing harmful activities, such as intercepting or altering data, trigger a security response.

By allowing benign proxies to operate without triggering false alerts, Appdome ensures a smoother user experience and reduces unnecessary security notifications, enabling a focus on genuine threats. This functionality exemplifies Appdome’s commitment to providing adaptive and intelligent security solutions that respect and integrate seamlessly with user preferences and existing security setups.

Prerequisites for Using Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies , you’ll need:

Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies on Mobile apps using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending Mobile Apps that Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies without an SDK or gateway:

  1. Upload the Mobile App to Appdome.

    1. Upload an app to Appdome’s Mobile App Security Build System

    2. Upload Method: Appdome Console or DEV-API
    3. Mobile App Formats: .ipa for iOS, or .apk or .aab for Android
    4. Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies Compatible With: Obj-C, Java, JS, C#, C++, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, and more
  2. Build the feature: Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies.

    1. Building Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies by using Appdome’s DEV-API:

      1. Create and name the Fusion Set (security template) that will contain the Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies feature as shown below:
      2. fusion set that contains Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies feature
        Note: Naming the Fusion Set to correspond to the protection(s) selected is for illustration purposes only (not required).

      3. Follow the steps in Sections 2.2.1-2.2.2 of this article, Building the Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies feature via Appdome Console, to add the Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies feature to this Fusion Set.

      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 2: Fusion Set Detail Summary
        Note: Annotating the Fusion Set to identify the protection(s) selected is optional only (not mandatory).

      5. Follow the instructions below to use the Fusion Set ID inside any standard mobile DevOps or CI/CD toolkit like Bitrise, App Center, Jenkins, Travis, Team City, Circle CI or other system:
        1. Build an API for the app – for instructions, see the tasks under Appdome API Reference Guide
        2. Look for sample APIs in Appdome’s GitHub Repository
    2. Building the Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies feature via Appdome Console

      To build the Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies protection by using Appdome Console, follow the instructions below.

      1. Where: Inside the Appdome Console, go to Build > Security Tab > Secure Communication section.
      2. How: Check whether is toggled On (enabled), otherwise enable it . The feature Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies is enabled by default, as shown below. Toggle (turn ON) Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies, as shown below. Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies option

        Figure 3: Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies option

      3. When you select the Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies you'll notice that your Fusion Set you created in step 2.1.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies

        Fusion Set applied Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies

        Figure 4: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies protection

      4. Click Build My App at the bottom of the Build Workflow (shown in Figure 3).
    Congratulations!  The Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies feature in Mobile Apps

    After building Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies, Appdome generates a Certified Secure™ certificate to guarantee that the Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies protection has been added and is protecting the app. To verify that the Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies protection has been added to the mobile app, locate the protection in the Certified Secure™ certificate as shown below: Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies shown in Certificate secure

    Figure 5: 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 Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies has been added to each Mobile app. Certified Secure provides instant and in-line DevSecOps compliance certification that Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies and other mobile app security features are in each build of the mobile app

Using Threat-Events™ for Personal Anti-Virus Proxies Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps

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

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for Personal Anti-Virus Proxies are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies
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 x
Visible in ThreatScope™ x
Developer Parameters for Allowing Personal Anti-Virus Proxies Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF
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.
carrierPlmn PLMN of the device. Only available for Android devices.
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
carrierName Carrier name of the current device. Only available for Android.
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 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

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 Personal Anti-Virus Proxies is detected.


The following is a code sample for native Mobile apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies:


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 Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies. 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 Allow Personal Anti-Virus Proxies

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 Enforce Secure Certificate Pinning in Android & iOS Apps

How to Secure Android & iOS Apps with Pin to Host

How to Detect Deep Proxy in Android & iOS Apps

 

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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