How to Detect FaceID Bypass in Mobile Apps Using AI

Last updated February 9, 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 Face ID Bypass in Mobile apps.

What is FaceID Bypass?

Deep fake FaceID bypass attacks exploit facial recognition systems by manipulating the camera feed to produce fake biometric images, tricking apps into granting unauthorized access. These attacks are particularly dangerous for banking, secure applications, and apps handling sensitive personal data. By intercepting and modifying facial authentication processes, attackers can bypass robust biometric defenses, enabling unauthorized access to critical functions and sensitive information. The rise of AI-driven deepfake technology makes these attacks increasingly effective and harder to detect. Defending against FaceID bypass is essential for maintaining biometric security, protecting personal data, and ensuring compliance with standards like GDPR.

How Appdome Protects Against FaceID Bypass?

Appdome’s dynamic Detect FaceID Bypass plugin for Android/iOS identifies deepfake attempts and manipulated camera feeds during biometric authentication. The plugin monitors facial recognition processes for anomalies and exits the app immediately when bypass attempts are detected, notifying the user of the threat. This protection ensures secure biometric authentication, prevents unauthorized access, and prevents account takeovers.

Prerequisites for Using Appdome's Detect Face ID Bypass Plugins:

To use Appdome’s mobile app security build system to Detect Face ID Bypass , you’ll need:

How to Implement Detect Face ID Bypass in Mobile Apps Using Appdome

On Appdome, follow these 3 simple steps to create self-defending Mobile Apps that Detect Face ID Bypass 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. Mobile App Formats: .ipa for iOS, or .apk or .aab for Android
    3. Detect Face ID Bypass is compatible with: Obj-C, Java, JS, C#, C++, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, React Native, Unity, Xamarin, and more.
  2. Select the defense: Detect Face ID Bypass.

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

        Figure 1: Fusion Set that will contain the Detect Face ID Bypass feature

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

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

        Fusion Set applied Detect Face ID Bypass

        Figure 2: Fusion Set that displays the newly added Detect Face ID Bypass 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 Face ID Bypass feature to your security template.

      1. Navigate to Build > Anti ATO tab > Deep Fake Detection section in the Appdome Console.
      2. Toggle On > Detect Face ID Bypass.

        (a) Choose to monitor this attack vector by checking the Threat Events checkbox associated with Detect Face ID Bypass as shown below.

        (b) To receive mobile Threat Monitoring, check the ThreatScope™ box as shown below. For more details, see our knowledge base article on ThreatScope™ Mobile XDR.
        Detect Face ID Bypass option

        Figure 4: Selecting Detect Face ID Bypass

        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. Select the Threat-Event™ in-app mobile Threat Defense and Intelligence policy for Detect Face ID Bypass:
        1. Threat-Events™ OFF > In-App Defense

          If the Threat-Events™ setting is not selected. Appdome will detect and defend the user and app by enforcing Face ID Bypass.

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

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects a hook on a camera-related Java method 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™ to Detect Face ID BypassDetect Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

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

          When this setting is used, Appdome detects and defends against Face ID Bypass (same as Appdome Enforce) and passes Appdome’s Threat-Event™ attack intelligence to 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 Detect Face ID BypassDetect Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps.

      4. Configure the User Experience Options for Detect Face ID Bypass:
        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 Face ID Bypass

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

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

Using Threat-Events™ for Face ID Bypass Intelligence and Control in Mobile Apps

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

The specifications and options for Threat-Events™ for Face ID Bypass are:

Threat-Event™ Elements Detect Face ID Bypass Method Detail
Appdome Feature Name Detect Face ID Bypass
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 Face ID Bypass Threat-Event™
Threat-Event NAME FaceIDBypassDetected
Threat-Event DATA reasonData
Threat-Event CODE reasonCode
Threat-Event REF 6939
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
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), 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 Face ID Bypass is detected.


The following is a code sample for native Mobile apps, which uses all values in the specification above for Detect Face ID Bypass:


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 Face ID Bypass. 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 Face ID Bypass

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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