Mobile User Experience Options When Copy/Paste is Not Allowed for DLP

Last updated January 14, 2024 by Appdome

Learn to Enforce Copy/Paste Prevention in Mobile apps, in mobile CI/CD with a Data-Driven DevSecOps™ build system.

What are Mobile User Experience options?

By definition User experience (UX) in mobile refers to the overall experience a person has interacting with any type of mobile device (phone, tablet, wearable, hybrid). Interactions include apps, interfaces, software, or the hardware itself.

In the case of Appdome, the default User experience is to send the user a notification (the “Copy/Paste Disabled Notification” message) when trying to copy/paste any data (when this toggle is enabled).

Your particular use case might be different. You might want to allow the users to copy/paste in certain circumstances.  If that is the case you can customize the behavior by enabling and implementing Threat-Events. When using Threat-Events, your application will receive the event when the security event is triggered and you can implement your own rules and logic on what to do when this event is triggered.

There are three (3) basic configurations available for Threat-Events. See section 2.2.4.

For details on how to implement Threat-Events, see section Using Threat-Events™ for App Screen Sharing Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps

Why Would You Customize the Mobile User Experience to which Your User is Exposed?

There might be business, user experience reasons, or other reasons to allow the user to copy/paste data in certain areas of your app. But there might be also sections of your app where sensitive information is located where you want to disallow these actions. These can be controlled via the implementation of  Appdome’s Threat-Events and allow you to customize the mobile user experience your user is exposed to by implementing your own rules when events are triggered based on your needs.

NOTE:

If you choose to do so, depending on your configuration, Appdome is no longer enforcing the security but passes the events to your app where you have to enforce the protection.

Prerequisites for Using Copy/Paste Prevention:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Enforce Copy/Paste Prevention , you’ll need:

Enforce Copy/Paste Prevention on Mobile apps using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending Mobile Apps that Enforce Copy/Paste Prevention 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. Copy/Paste Prevention Compatible With: Obj-C, Java, JS, C#, C++, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, and more
  2. Build the feature: Copy/Paste Prevention.

    1. Building Copy/Paste Prevention by using Appdome’s DEV-API:

      1. Create and name the Fusion Set (security template) that will contain the Copy/Paste Prevention feature as shown below:
      2. fusion set that contains Copy/Paste Prevention

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Copy/Paste Prevention 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 Copy/Paste Prevention feature via Appdome Console, to add the Copy/Paste Prevention 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 Copy/Paste Prevention feature via Appdome Console

      To build the Copy/Paste Prevention protection by using Appdome Console, follow the instructions below.

      1. Where: Inside the Appdome Console, go to Build > Security Tab > Mobile Privacy section.
      2. How: Check whether is toggled On (enabled), otherwise enable it . The feature Copy/Paste Prevention is enabled by default, as shown below. Toggle (turn ON) Copy/Paste Prevention, as shown below.
        If needed, Customize the Threat Notification to be displayed to the mobile end-user in a standard OS dialog notification when Appdome Enforces Copy/Paste Prevention.
        Copy/Paste Prevention option

        Figure 3: Enforce Copy/Paste Prevention option
        Note: The App Compromise Notification contains an easy to follow default remediation path for the mobile app end user. You can customize this message as required to achieve brand specific support, workflow or other messaging.

      3. When you select the Copy/Paste Prevention you'll notice that your Fusion Set you created in step 2.1.1 now bears the icon of the protection category that contains Copy/Paste Prevention

        Fusion Set applied Copy/Paste Prevention

        Figure 4: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Copy/Paste Prevention protection

      4. Select the Threat-Event™ in-app mobile Threat Defense and Intelligence policy for Copy/Paste Prevention:
        1. Threat-Events™ OFF > In-App Defense

          If the Threat-Events™ setting is cleared (not selected). Appdome will detect and defend the user and app by enforcing Enforce Copy/Paste Prevention.

        2. Threat-Events™ ON > In-App Detection

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects attempts to access your clipboard and passes Appdome’s Threat-Event™ attack intelligence to the app’s business logic for processing, enforcement, and user notification. For more information on consuming and using Appdome Threat-Events™ in the app, see section Using Threat-Events™ for Copy/Paste Prevention Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

        3. Threat-Events™ ON > In-App Defense

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects and defends against Copy/Paste Prevention (same as Appdome Enforce) and passes Appdome’s Threat-Event™ attack intelligence the app’s business logic for processing. For more information on consuming and using Appdome Threat-Events™ in the app, see section Using Threat-Events™ for Copy/Paste Prevention Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

      5. Click Build My App at the bottom of the Build Workflow (shown in Figure 3).
    Congratulations!  The Copy/Paste Prevention protection is now added to the mobile app
  3. Certify the Copy/Paste Prevention feature in Mobile Apps

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

Using Threat-Events™ for Copy/Paste Prevention Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps

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

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for Copy/Paste Prevention are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Enforce Copy/Paste Prevention Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Copy/Paste Prevention
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 Enforcing Copy/Paste Prevention Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME BlockedClipboardEvent
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF 8520
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
blocked Is the clipboard blocked
action Clipboard action

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 Copy/Paste Prevention is detected.


The following is a code sample for native Mobile apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Copy/Paste Prevention:


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 Copy/Paste Prevention. 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 Copy/Paste Prevention

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:

Mobile User Experience Options When Non-Approved or Unsafe Certificates are Detected

Mobile User Experience Options When Untrusted TLS Hardening Cipher Suite is Detected

Mobile User Experience Options When Screen Sharing is Not Allowed for DLP

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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